T-Mobile’s latest quarter looks a lot less straightforward than the company may have wanted. While AT&T said it added 294,000 net new postpaid subscribers in Q1 and Verizon reported 55,000, T-Mobile did not break out some of its usual key growth figures. That left analysts and investors reading between the lines, and the picture that emerged was one of a carrier still growing, but also facing more pressure in several important areas. 

According to PhoneArena, analyst Roger Entner estimated that T-Mobile added 520,000 new postpaid subscribers in Q1, which would be better than the 495,000 it posted in the same quarter last year. Even so, growth appears to have slowed slightly when looked at against T-Mobile’s overall customer base. The report also said other postpaid additions were around 900,000, prepaid additions were about 50,000, and 5G fixed wireless access net additions came in at 470,000.

The bigger concerns may be in the areas where T-Mobile is still trying to catch up. The company reportedly added just 50,000 new fiber customers, far behind AT&T’s 292,000 and Verizon’s 127,000. At the same time, Spectrum and Charter increased their share of switchers to 5.6%, up from 4.2% a year earlier, which suggests cable players are doing a better job pulling in customers who may once have gone to T-Mobile.

There is also churn. T-Mobile’s churn rate rose by 10 basis points, even though the company argued postpaid phone churn was up by only 3 basis points. T-Mobile’s explanation was that newer customers and broadband-only users are leaving faster, and because those customers often have just one line, they push account churn higher. That matters because broadband is now T-Mobile’s fastest-growing business, so stronger growth paired with faster customer losses is not exactly an ideal mix.

All of that lands during Srini Gopalan’s first full quarter as CEO, whose leadership style is more focused on efficiency, automation, and earnings. This is in contrast to the louder “Un-carrier” image T-Mobile still promotes through things like T-Life, Live Translation, and its Better Value plan. T-Mobile is still adding customers, but this quarter suggests the company may be entering a phase where the wins are harder earned and the weak spots are getting tougher to hide.

Source: PhoneArena