By the Numbers: Top Ten U.S. Wireless Service Providers

The companies listed below represent the ten largest national and regional licensed wireless carriers based on subscriber numbers at the end of the second quarter of this year.

Once again, there was no movement among the top 10 carriers. AT&T continued to rank No. 1 with nearly 73 million subscribers, trailed by Verizon Wireless with close to 69 million. Verizon again surpassed AT&T in net subscriber additions by about 200,000.

Verizon Wireless closed its acquisition of ninth-ranked Rural Cellular Corp. in early August. RCC remains in this ranking because the deal was completed after the close of the second-quarter. Verizon also is in the process of acquiring Alltel Corp. If the deal is approved, it would vault Verizon into the No. 1 spot on the list.

While still facing significant challenges, third-ranked Sprint Nextel cut its churn and slowed its loss of customers to about 900,000 during the quarter from 1 million during the first quarter.

All carriers showed increases in data ARPU during the quarter.

T-Mobile reported its churn increased from 2.6% to 2.7%, which the company blamed on the anniversary of the introduction of two-year contracts, which started expiring during the quarter.

The RCR Wireless News “Top 10” list is the property of RCR Wireless News and should not be construed as an endorsement of any company listed. Please link to this report using the “permalink” button, below.