T-Mobile US on Thursday reported a 13.8% jump in second quarter revenue, thanks in no small part to the addition of 2.1 million new customers.
The U.S.’s fourth-largest player generated revenue of US$8.18 billion in the three months to 30 June, compared to $7.19 billion a year earlier. Service revenue jumped 12% to $6.14 billion, and equipment revenue grew to $1.9 billion from $1.6 billion.
"Overall, I think our results speak for themselves," said T-Mobile US chief executive John Legere, in a statement.
Indeed, the company’s challenger strategy continues to pay off, with T-Mobile US adding 2.1 million new customers during the quarter.
Branded postpaid net additions exceeded 1 million customers for the fourth consecutive quarter. 760,000 of those net additions were phone customers. Branded prepaid customer additions came in at 178,000 in the second quarter, up 75% on a year ago.
In total, T-Mobile ended the second quarter with 58.9 million customers, compared to 56.8 million in the first quarter and 50.5 million a year earlier.
This impressive performance could see T-Mobile overtake third-placed Sprint, which is due to report its next set of quarterly results on 4 August.
At the end of March, Sprint had 57.14 million customers, good enough to keep T-Mobile in fourth spot. However, Sprint needs to have netted at least 1.8 million customers during the last three months for things to stay that way.
For T-Mobile, attracting all those customers comes at a price though.
Operating expenses climbed to $7.58 billion from $6.22 billion, driven by higher equipment and selling, general and administrative costs.
Operating profit fell to $597 million from $962 million in Q2 2014, when T-Mobile benefitted to the tune of $747 million by selling spectrum licences. As a result, net profit fell to $363 million from $677 million.
