The companies listed below represent the ten largest national and regional licensed wireless carriers based on subscriber numbers at the end of the first quarter of this year.
There were no changes in rankings among the top 10 carriers, and AT&T Mobility continued to top the list. However, the company did note that its first-quarter net subscriber additions were reduced by about 330,000 due to the shutdown of its TDMA network in February.
Verizon Wireless held its strong second-place spot. The carrier surpassed AT&T in net additions for the quarter by about 200,000 customers. Sprint Nextel Corp. held its No. 3 spot despite continued troubles and the loss of 1 million net subscribers for the quarter.
In February, T-Mobile USA Inc. completed its acquisition of SunCom Wireless, which previously was ranked No. 10 on the RCR Wireless News By the Numbers list.
Interestingly, Verizon Wireless is in the process of acquiring two carriers on this list- Alltel Communications L.L.C. and Rural Cellular Corp. If the deals are approved, it would make Verizon Wireless the nation’s largest carrier.
The RCR Wireless News “By-The-Numbers” list is the property of RCR Wireless News and should not be construed as an endorsement of the companies listed below. Ranking information from this feature cannot be reprinted without permission.
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By the Numbers: Top Ten U.S. Wireless Service Providers for the first quarter of 2008 |
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Operator
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Subsriber Base
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Net Additions
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Total Churn
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Postpaid Churn
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ARPU
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Data ARPU
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Revenues
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| AT&T Mobility | 71.4 million | 1.3 million | 1.70% | 1.20% | $50.18 | $10.80 | $11.8 billion |
| Verizon Wireles | 67.2 million | 1.5 million | 1.19% | 0.93% | $51.40 | $11.94 | $11.7 billion |
| Sprint Nextel | 52.8 million | -1 million | 2.45% | $56 | $11.50 | $8 billion | |
| T-Mobile USA | 30.8 million | 981,000 | 2.60% | 1.70% | $51 | $8.50 | $5.19 billion |
| Alltel Corp. | 13.2 million | 385,000 | 1.83% | 1.34% | $53.64 | $7.50 | $2.3 billion |
| U.S. Cellular | 6.2 million | 80,000 | 1.40% | $52.06 | $962.1 million | ||
| MetroPCS | 4.4 million | 452,000 | 4% | $42.22 | $662 million | ||
| Leap Wireless | 3.09 million | 230,000 | 3.60% | $44.98 | $468.4 million | ||
| Centennial** | 662,700 | 12,600 | 2% | $70 | $5.45 | $137.8 million | |
| Rural Cellular | 790,431 | -274 | 1.80% | $77 | $167.2 million | ||
| Notes: AT&T said its first-quarter net adds were reduced by about 330,000 due to the shutdown of its TDMA network in February. T-Mobile USA completed its acquistion of SunCom Wireless on Feb. 22. | |||||||
| *Postpaid only. Churn attributable to the Boost subscriber base was 9.9%, up from 7.5% during the fourth quarter. | |||||||
| **Results are for the company’s fiscal third quarter ended Feb. 29. | |||||||
