T-Mobile’s fourth quarter and year-end results came in today with losses but also a few victories
T-Mobile’s Q4 financial results are in, and they’re about what you’d expect given their recent strategies of giving away tablet data, removing device subsidies and their corresponding contracts, paying termination fees from competitors, wacky marketing campaigns, and free international data roaming. They lost money over the quarter, but gained subscribers. They’re up to 46.7 million customers, which is up 1.65 million from last quarter, and quarterly revenue was up to $6.8 billion, which is a $39% increase year-over-year. Still, this resulted in a net loss of $20 million for the quarter due to the aforementioned costs.
It takes money to make money, as they say, and in that light, these losses may seem worthwhile in the long run. How many of you guys are T-Mobile customers? How many of you have switched over in the last couple of months? Do the changes they’re making in wireleess merit all the marketing attitude? Highlights from the quarter and full-year results are below.
Source: T-Mobile
Fourth Quarter 2013 Highlights:
- Total net customer additions of more than 1.6 million
- 981,000 total branded net customer additions with 869,000 branded postpaid net additions, representing the best branded postpaid performance since the fourth quarter of 2005
- Improving branded postpaid phone net additions of 800,000 and 69,000 mobile broadband net additions
- Accelerating branded prepaid customer growth with 112,000 net customer additions
- Continued low branded postpaid churn of 1.7%, flat quarter-over-quarter and down 80 basis points year-over-year, resulting in the best quarter of year-over-year churn reduction in 2013
- Delivered third consecutive quarter of sequential service revenue growth
- Strong Adjusted EBITDA of $1.239 billion and Adjusted EBITDA margin of 24% combined with significant customer growth
- Successful modernization program delivers nationwide 4G LTE network coverage to 209 million people in 273 metro areas
Full Year 2013 Highlights:
- Total net customer additions of more than 4.4 million on a pro forma combined basis
- 2.4 million total branded net customer additions including 2 million branded postpaid and 359,000 branded prepaid customers on a pro forma combined basis
- Branded postpaid churn of 1.7%, down 70 basis points year-over-year
- Adjusted EBITDA of $5.317 billion and Adjusted EBITDA margin of 26% on a pro forma combined basis
- Successful introduction and execution of major Un-carrier initiatives
- Rapid progress with the integration of MetroPCS by expanding the brand into 30 additional markets
- Currently 3.5 million MetroPCS customers on the T-Mobile network
- Met or exceeded all company guidance targets for 2013