T-Mobile loses 150,000 customers this year; Revenue down in Q2 earnings report
T-Mobile, one of the largest mobile networks in the United States, lost 50,000 customers in this second quarter alone.
This quarter, though not as dire as the previous reports from Q1 2011 and Q2 2010, where it lost 99,000 and 93,000 respectively, still presents a negative picture for the U.S. wireless giant.
Overall, the total revenues were down slightly compared to the previous quarter; with just over $5 billion generated this quarter, down from $5.4 billion from the same quarter last year.
While contract customers were dropping in their thousands, T-Mobile partly made it up in sales of pre-paid sales, as the pre-paid customer segment is rising in the company's portfolio.
Still with over 33.6 million subscribers, though losing 281,000 contract users, it had gained 231,000 pre-paid customers this quarter.
T-Mobile has lost nearly 150,000 customers this year.
But as contract customers are a fixed and regular source of income, it is worth mentioning that contract customers are far more valuable to T-Mobile and other mobile networks than unreliable, revenue dripping pay-and-go customers.
Citing reasons that the "United States remains a difficult market" for Deutsche Telekom -- the German parent company of T-Mobile USA, CEO René Obermann said that the company would stay with its current strategy, saying that T-Mobile will "see improvements compared to the previous quarter".
AT&T is still pushing ahead with the merging of T-Mobile USA, despite these losses, in a bid to increase its overall network capacity.
All in all, though the figures may not necessarily spring joy to the hearts of investors, overall the picture is not as bad as it seems. Nearly 50,000 lost customers compared to its 33.6 million subscribers is only a fraction compared to the combined effort of T-Mobile and AT&T put together.
The figures and subscriber numbers could be greatly improved by T-Mobile's high-speed 4G mobile data rollout, as well as the iPhone -- expected later this year.
However, the merger will no doubt spring problems for smaller, competing firms like Sprint, which has already aired its concern at a 'super-giant' mobile network that AT&T and T-Mobile will end up to be.
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