T-Mobile in Q1 adds 1.65 million net connections, tops expectations
T-Mobile said it added 1.65 million net connections in the first quarter with 1.02 million branded postpaid additions as its results were better than expected.
The company reported first quarter revenue of $11.1 billion, up 6% from a year ago, with net income of $908 million and earnings per share of $1.06 a share.
Wall Street was expecting T-Mobile to report first quarter non-GAAP earnings of 91 cents a share on revenue of $11 billion.
Simply put, T-Mobile appears to be taking share and keeping its customers with a branded postpaid phone churn of 0.88%.
Verizon and AT&T added fewer phone net adds than T-Mobile, but have been adding extra lines for wearables.
On 5G, T-Mobile said it plans to have its standards based 5G network across the U.S. in 2020. In 2019, T-Mobile said it will launch its 5G network on 600 MHz in the second half of the year.
As for the outlook, T-Mobile said it expects to add 3.1 million to 3.7 million branded postpaid net additions. The company had projected 2.6 million to 3.6 million branded postpaid net adds. Adjusted EBITDA will be between $12.7 billion to $13.2 billion.
Among the key items in the quarter:
T-Mobile said that it is seeing strong demand from new rate plans on the consumer front as well as T-Mobile for Business.
At the end of the quarter, T-Mobile reported 81.3 million total customers.
Service revenue for the first quarter came in at $8.28 billion.
Average revenue per user fell 1.3% in the first quarter to $46.07.