The company added 962,000 postpaid phone subscribers during the October–December period, falling short of analyst expectations of about 981,000 additions. Despite the shortfall, T-Mobile still recorded the highest number of new monthly-bill-paying customers among the three major U.S. wireless carriers, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
Shares of T-Mobile dropped roughly 3.4% in premarket trading following the announcement.
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Industry competition intensified during the holiday shopping season, when telecom companies typically roll out aggressive promotional campaigns tied to events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Rival Verizon, under its new leadership strategy, reported strong customer growth during the same period, helped by discounted multi-line plans.
T-Mobile’s customer churn rate rose slightly to 1.02% from 0.92% a year earlier, indicating a modest increase in customers leaving the service.
However, the company reported stronger-than-expected revenue, posting $24.33 billion compared to analyst forecasts of $24.11 billion. Growth was partly driven by increased demand for premium plans that include bundled streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu.
Looking ahead, T-Mobile projected annual adjusted free cash flow between $18 billion and $18.7 billion, below analyst expectations of about $18.9 billion. The company said higher integration costs tied to its merger with UScellular are likely to weigh on cash flow in the near term.
Analysts say the results highlight how pricing competition and promotional offers continue to shape subscriber growth across the U.S. telecom industry.
