T-Mobile continues to surge with profits and subscriber growth, tops J.D. Power study

By Robert Nazarian July 30, 2015

T-Mobile Event 3/18/2015 — Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends

T-Mobile CEO John Legere must be doing something right because things haven’t looked better for the Un-carrier.

The company reported financial results for the second quarter with better than expected profits. Profit for the quarter was $361 million or 42 cents per share. With analysts predicting only 18 cents per share, it’s safe to say that T-Mobile blew away expectations. So much so that the stock was up 5.6 percent in pre-market trading.

T-Mobile has been making the “Un-carrier” phrase a household name by giving away mobile service at unbelievable pricing. This kind of disruption often leads to growth, but it’s not always profitable, so this is great news for the fourth-largest wireless carrier. What’s even better is that the company expects to be profitable for the remainder of the year.

The reason for this profitability has been subscriber growth — T-Mobile added 2.1 million new subscribers during the second quarter, bringing its total to 58.9 customers. The much larger carriers, Verizon and AT&T, added 1 million and 2.1 million new customers for the same period respectively, but that growth was more from tablets and connected cars, which isn’t as profitable. The majority of T-Mobile’s new customers are signing up for phone service.

Programs like the ability to upgrade smartphones three times a year and use your phone in all of North America without roaming fees are definitely working and could very well catapult the company to the No. 3 position, overtaking Sprint.

If this news isn’t enough to make John Legere giddy this morning, how about coming out on top in the latest J.D Power study, which was released today. This study analyzed how satisfied customers are with their current wireless carrier in terms of customer care. T-Mobile took the top spot with a score of 795 out of 1,000, followed by AT&T with 792, Verizon at 776, and Sprint at 748. J.D. Power has conducted this study 22 times, and T-Mobile came in first 13 times.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Robert Nazarian

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Robert Nazarian became a technology enthusiast when his parents bought him a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color. Now his biggest…

Mobile

T-Mobile calls on Verizon, AT&T to commit to renewable electricity

T-Mobile storefront with corporate signage.

On Monday, January 29, T-Mobile announced its plans to move to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2021. The "Un-carrier" is now committing $500,000 to a non-profit that is specifically dedicated to pushing clean energy initiatives. If AT&T and Verizon join in, T-Mobile will triple its total.

A video featuring John Legere, T-Mobile's CEO and president, urges people to grab the attention of both AT&T and Verizon's CEOs -- Randall Stephenson and Lowell McAdam, respectively -- by contacting them. If one of the two carriers commits to 100 percent renewable energy by June 1, then T-Mobile will throw in $100,00. If both carriers commit, then T-Mobile will raise the amount to $1.5 million.

Mobile

T-Mobile is best mobile network in all categories but one, OpenSignal says

Cell tower FM radio

T-Mobile is on the way up. OpenSignal's latest State of Mobile Networks report delves into struggles that the likes of Verizon have been having of late -- and it seems as though T-Mobile is picking up a lot of the slack.

Verizon and AT&T's data speeds took a bit of a hit when they first started offering unlimited data plans, we previously reported, though their speeds now seem to be recovering -- even if only slightly. According to the report, T-Mobile has established itself as the fastest and most responsive mobile network around in the meantime. In fact, T-Mobile took all of OpenSignal's awards except for one -- 4G latency, which was won by AT&T, though T-Mobile came in a close second. T-Mobile even managed to set a personal record in the fourth quarter of 2017, hitting an average download high of 19.4 Mbps. (And we picked T-Mob's "One Unlimited Plan" as the best unlimited data plan.)

Mobile

T-Mobile is faster than Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T, according to Oookla Speedtest

ookla speedtest

Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint all lag behind T-Mobile when it comes to 4G LTE speeds. That is according to the newest Ookla Speedtest report, which analyzed crowdsourced test results taken during the first and second fiscal quarter of 2017.

T-Mobile is the fastest carrier in 40 of the U.S.'s 100 most populous cities, according to Ookla. Subscribers speeds regularly exceeded Ookla's Acceptable Speed Ratio -- a download rate of at least 5 Mbps -- 78.1 percent of the time, ahead of Verizon Wireless (77.8 percent), AT&T (75.9 percent), and Sprint (64.9 percent). T-Mobile scored the highest in Ookla's Speed Score rankings, an average of low-end, median, and top-end speeds.