T-Mobile US released preliminary customer results for the fourth quarter this morning, reflecting continued strong growth including 1.9 million net customer additions, of which 1 million were postpaid phone customer net additions.
The overall number was primarily made up of postpaid net additions, according to the carrier: 1.3 million branded postpaid net additions. Branded postpaid phone churn was at 1.01%, the company reported.
T-Mo also reported 77,000 branded prepaid net additions in the fourth quarter, and wholesale net customer additions of 472,000.
The carrier said it has now racked up 27 quarters in a row with more than 1 million total net adds. It ended 2019 with a customer base of 86 million.
For the full year of 2019, T-Mobile US said that it added 7.0 million total net additions, including 4.5 million branded postpaid net additions. That number, it noted, was better than its guidance of 4.1-4.3 million.
CEO John Legere took to Twitter to share the numbers:
How much stronger did @TMobile get in Q4?!
💪 1.9M total net new customers – 27 Qs straight >1M!!
💪 1.3M branded postpaid net adds!!
💪 1M branded postpaid phone net adds!
💪 And 77k branded prepaid net adds!
💪 1.01% branded postpaid phone churn – right near our Q4 record low!— John Legere (@JohnLegere) January 7, 2020
The carrier is waiting for a judge’s ruling as to whether it can proceed with its proposed merger with Sprint.
T-Mobile US’ stock was trading up slightly, less than 1%, on Tuesday morning. And Wall Street observers are likely to take the new numbers as continued evidence that T-Mobile US doesn’t need Sprint to continue its path of growth; according to a Bloomberg report, Nomura Instinet analyst Jeffrey Kvaal said that investors backing T-Mobile US are “winners” whether the merger goes through or not. Kvaal expects a court decision on thermerger by early February and put the odds of approval at 45%.
