T-Mobile’s Blockbuster 2014 Wasn't Enough To Snatch Third Place From Sprint
Sprint this week reported some preliminary customer results for its third fiscal quarter of 2014, noting that it added 967,000 customers to the fold, including postpaid net additions of 30,000, prepaid net additions of 410,000, and wholesale net additions of 527,000. What's significant about these numbers is that it means Sprint was able to hold onto its position as the third largest wireless carrier in the U.S.
That's bad news for T-Mobile, which has been pulling out all the stops as it attempts to catch up with surpass Sprint. And T-Mobile would have, if only Sprint posted a loss in subscribers -- T-Mobile earlier this week announced that it added 8.3 million subscribers in 2014, bringing its total to 55 million, the same number that Sprint announced at the end of the third quarter last year.
However, Sprint didn't lose customers, so for the time being, it's still ahead of rival T-Mobile and its outspoken CEO John Legere, who predicted in a Twitter post that T-Mobile would reach third place by now. That said, T-Mobile is still on track to surpass Sprint, it's just taking a little longer than Legere anticipated.
Of course, Sprint isn't going to just roll over and concede to T-Mobile.
"Sprint’s first priority is a return to customer growth and our results during the last quarter show we are on the right track," said Marcelo Claure, Sprint’s CEO. “While we still have work to do, it is clear that our aggressive actions to provide customers with the best value in wireless are gaining momentum."
Bear in mind that both companies are reporting preliminary numbers, though barring any major mistakes in accounting, they should be close to the actual results.
That's bad news for T-Mobile, which has been pulling out all the stops as it attempts to catch up with surpass Sprint. And T-Mobile would have, if only Sprint posted a loss in subscribers -- T-Mobile earlier this week announced that it added 8.3 million subscribers in 2014, bringing its total to 55 million, the same number that Sprint announced at the end of the third quarter last year.
However, Sprint didn't lose customers, so for the time being, it's still ahead of rival T-Mobile and its outspoken CEO John Legere, who predicted in a Twitter post that T-Mobile would reach third place by now. That said, T-Mobile is still on track to surpass Sprint, it's just taking a little longer than Legere anticipated.
7/ I predict the #uncarrier will overtake @Sprint in total customers by the end of the year! There, I said it! http://t.co/4AtGl5sSX9
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) August 6, 2014"Sprint’s first priority is a return to customer growth and our results during the last quarter show we are on the right track," said Marcelo Claure, Sprint’s CEO. “While we still have work to do, it is clear that our aggressive actions to provide customers with the best value in wireless are gaining momentum."
Bear in mind that both companies are reporting preliminary numbers, though barring any major mistakes in accounting, they should be close to the actual results.
