Sprint on Thursday revealed that it added fewer than a million new customers in the final quarter of last year, which should be enough to keep it ahead of T-Mobile as the third largest mobile operator in the U.S., for now at least.
The telco said its net additions for the three months to the end of December totalled 967,000. By contrast, T-Mobile on Wednesday claimed 2.1 million net adds, taking its total customer base to 55.02 million.
Sprint did not disclose its overall customer numbers, but based on the fact that it had a base of 55.04 million at the end of September, it presumably ended the year with just over 56 million.
T-Mobile is performing better in most areas though.
Sprint’s postpaid net additions came in at 30,000, and it did not share how many – if any – of those were phone customers. T-Mo, meanwhile, added 1.04 million new postpaid phone customers. Sprint said it "nearly" recorded postpaid phone net additions in December.
The fact that Sprint’s prepaid net adds exceeded T-Mo’s – it posted 410,000 to its rival’s 266,000 in Q4 – comes as little consolation at a time when the big four in the U.S. are working hard to attract high-end contract customers.
"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 Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, in a statement.
"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," he said.
According to various U.S. news reports, Sprint has benefitted from its ‘Cut Your Bill in Half’ promotion designed to lure in customers from AT&T and Verizon with the promise of lower rates, and plans to continue the offer this year.
