Now this is fun.
Over the past couple years, I’ve seen flashes of brilliance from this team. I’ve seen unbelievable dedication and hard work. I’ve seen them run circles around the competition and bend over backwards for our customers. But lately, the entire team’s playing at another level. I cannot tell you how much fun it’s been to watch this team come together and absolutely crush it on all fronts.
And today, we have the privilege of sharing the results of those efforts for Q2 2014. We are clearly the fastest growing wireless company in America!
Here are a few highlights of some pretty amazing results:
- T-Mobile added 1.5 million new customers this quarter, making this our fifth consecutive quarter of more than 1 million net customer adds.
- That makes 7.6 million net new customers over the past 15 months.
- Once again, T-Mobile US topped the entire U.S. wireless industry in postpaid phone adds— bringing in more than the other three major carriers combined.
- Our total revenue growth this quarter was 8% year over year, topping everyone in the industry!
- And we took ALL of the growth in the prepaid sector as well, led by our rapid expansion of MetroPCS.
That’s now five straight quarters of solid, sustained momentum and growth. This company has completely transformed and changed trajectory in an insanely short time.
Speaking of MetroPCS, we reached a big milestone this quarter. We now have nearly 10,000 outlets in 45 metro areas across the nation. And, while MetroPCS continued to grow this quarter, AT&T/Cricket, Verizon and Sprint ALL lost prepaid customers.
All of this pushed us over the threshold of 50 million customers. That’s a huge milestone for us. But it gets even better.
On top of it all, churn (customers leaving T-Mobile US) continues to remain at record low levels. So not only are more Americans choosing T-Mobile and MetroPCS, but customers are also staying longer.
What more can I say? The numbers for customer adds, revenue and earnings speak volumes about our performance. And there are two key reasons for these results—our amazing network and our amazing people.
Network Innovation @ Internet Speed
No other network team in the nation can get it done like our network team. Case in point—we began rolling out our LTE in early 2013. Today, just over a year later, we deliver America’s fastest nationwide 4G LTE network, covering 233 million Americans in 325 metro areas.
Then, just over two months ago, our network guru, Neville Ray, announced T-Mobile Voice over LTE (VoLTE) in the Seattle area—making T-Mobile the first in the nation to launch VoLTE. In the same breath, Neville promised VoLTE nationwide by the end of 2014—while continuing to build out our T-Mobile Wideband LTE. Some out there thought he’d overpromised.
But Neville and team have delivered. As of today, T-Mobile offers nationwide VoLTE. That’s nationwide. In just over two months.
But here’s the best part. T-Mobile customers are already experiencing the benefits of all this hard work. Right now, customers with the LG G Flex, Samsung Galaxy S 5, Galaxy Light and Note 3 can enjoy T-Mobile VoLTE. With more than 2.8 million VoLTE-capable devices already on the T-Mobile network, our customers have made more than 52 million crystal-clear VoLTE calls to date. And, as I write this, the team is working overtime to add even more VoLTE-capable devices to our network.
The team has also been aggressively rolling out Wideband LTE, upgrading our remaining 2G footprint to 4G LTE and starting to roll out our new low-band 700 MHz A-Block spectrum. In fact, in the three months since we got hold of this spectrum, we’ve already begun equipping sites with 700 MHz gear. Just. Three. Months. And we’ve begun field-testing our first 700 MHz-compatible devices, so we can get those devices in stores and online—and in customers’ hands—before the end of this year.
As we roll out this low-band spectrum, expect to see big improvements in in-building 4G LTE coverage—as well as coverage out beyond major metro areas.
And we’ve got at least 10+10MHz 4G LTE in an amazing 43 of the top 50 markets. Plus, our T-Mobile Wideband LTE, which we define as at least 15+15MHz, is already in 17 metro areas—with 26 total metro areas planned for the end of this year. By the way, in stark contrast to our competitors, 100 percent of our customers with LTE devices will enjoy the benefits of our Wideband LTE as we light up their area. Boom.
Nobody else delivers this kind of speed. No one else is capable of lighting up new network technologies like this team. We can do this, because we’re not playing the phone company utility game. We’re playing the mobile Internet company game.
Un-matched Customer Service
I’ve gotta say it. We have the best people on the planet. I’ve never seen anything like our T-Mobile and MetroPCS customer care and support teams. If you were at our Un-carrier 5.0 and 6.0 event, you know what I’m talking about. They rock the house. They are the Un-carrier. And they are 100 percent there for our customers.
So I wasn’t surprised when J.D. Power told us we’d taken the top spot in customer satisfaction—both for T-Mobile among the major national U.S. wireless providers and MetroPCS among non-contract wireless providers (aka prepaid). Proud? Sure. But not surprised. I know customers are happier with T-Mobile because of our people. This team’s energy and excitement is remarkable—whether you’re in a store or on the phone. I see it and feel it every day. And so do our customers.
Just 12 months ago, T-Mobile was ranked fourth among the four major national providers. Today we’re back on top. In fact, we scored a full 16 points above the average. When people ask how we got our groove back, the answer is simple. We let our team do what they do best—help people. That’s it. We got out of the way, and they did the rest.
And our MetroPCS team again claimed the No.1 spot in its category. MetroPCS has been topping the charts for years, with the highest ratings four consecutive times. That’s a very long string of titles right there.
So T-Mobile US is in a very good place today. But this isn’t the destination. It’s a signpost telling us we’re heading in the right direction. We still have a lot of hard work to do to transform this industry. Pain points to eliminate. Customers to wow.
And, as pumped as I get seeing this team playing like it is today, I’m even more excited by this fact—the Un-carrier revolution only began last year.
We’re just getting going.