As the Q2 reporting season comes to a close, it's time to look at how Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T stack up against each other.

Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies

August 7, 2019

2 Min Read
Wireless Industry in Q2 in 9 Charts

With the second quarter earnings season coming to a close, it's time to have a quick look at some of the major themes coming out of the wireless industry.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Q2 is the relative financial health of some of the industry's major players. "Service revenue grew 2.5% YoY in 2Q19," wrote the analysts at Wall Street research firm Evercore in a recent report to investors. "This is the fourth straight quarter of 2%+ growth in service revenue and sixth straight quarter of positive growth after several quarters of YoY service revenue declines. All major wireless carriers, except Sprint, saw service revenue growth in 2Q19."

This is noteworthy considering the price wars in the wireless industry between 2016 and 2018 dragged at operators' financials.

Another major, ongoing trend is T-Mobile's dominance with postpaid phone customers. Evercore noted T-Mobile accounted for 90% of the total net customer additions with 710,000 postpaid phone customer additions in Q2, followed by Verizon's 245,000 postpaid phone subscriber additions. Meantime, AT&T lost 23,000 postpaid phone customers and Sprint lost 128,000 during the period. Postpaid phone subscribers -- customers who pay for service after they receive it -- are often the most valuable type of wireless customer.

Here are nine charts, from Evercore and 556 Ventures, showing more trends in customers and financials among the nation's major wireless network operators.

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Figure 3:

Figure 4:

Figure 5:

Figure 6:

Figure 7:

Figure 8:

Figure 9:

Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies, Light Reading | @mikeddano

About the Author(s)

Mike Dano

Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies, Light Reading

Mike Dano is Light Reading's Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies. Mike can be reached at [email protected], @mikeddano or on LinkedIn.

Based in Denver, Mike has covered the wireless industry as a journalist for almost two decades, first at RCR Wireless News and then at FierceWireless and recalls once writing a story about the transition from black and white to color screens on cell phones.

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like