Q1 Scorecard: Wireless Operators Square Off on DataQ1 Scorecard: Wireless Operators Square Off on Data

The first quarter for the U.S. Tier 1 wireless operators was defined by trying to pitch Long Term Evolution (LTE) smartphones in an iPhone-dominated world and eking out more revenue per subscriber in the face of slowing growth.

For the smaller players, the quarter was a struggle between thinking long-term on LTE and staying competitive in the interim.

In both cases, some were more successful than others.

With the exception of T-Mobile US Inc. , which reports with its parent company Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) on May 10, the major operators -- Verizon Wireless , AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) -- have reported their first-quarter numbers, as have smaller carriers Leap Wireless International Inc. (Nasdaq: LEAP) and MetroPCS Inc. (NYSE: PCS) and wholesaler Clearwire LLC (Nasdaq: CLWR).

Here's how they stacked up on some key metrics from the quarter:

Table 1: Tier 1 Q1 Scorecard

Table 2: Tier 2 Q1 Scorecard

ARPU vs. subscribers
One of the most striking juxtapositions of the quarter is that for all the wireless operators, subscriber growth was stalling while average revenue per user (ARPU) driven by data was on the rise. Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Inc. analyst Craig Moffett says it's an indication the wireless market is quickly reaching saturation.

"All is not well in Wireless Land," Moffett wrote in a research note. "Smartphone penetration, which has driven the industry's recent gains in ARPU growth, has passed 50 percent of post-paid subscribers in the U.S., suggesting that deceleration of incremental gains, for the industry at least, is a mathematical certainty."

To offset the decline, operators are working to increase the revenue they get from each subscriber they have. That's coming from new pricing plans, the move from unlimited data to tiers, higher upgrade fees and just plain ol' price increases to offset handset subsidies and stalling growth. (See Time for a 4G Price War Already?, MetroPCS Raises the Cost of Unlimited and Verizon Institutes $30 Upgrade Fee.)

Only Verizon and AT&T reported data ARPU, but both saw it rise -- Verizon by 16 percent over last year and AT&T by 15 percent. AT&T has moved 61 percent of its subscribers over to tiered plans as well.

LTE vs. the iPhone
As in quarters past, regardless of how hard LTE devices were marketed, the iPhone still dominated the scene at the big three. AT&T, Verizon and Sprint activated 4.3 million, 3.2 million and 1.5 million iPhones, respectively. That's down 43 percent for AT&T and 24 percent for Verizon from the previous quarter but still represented the majority of sales for both. (See Apple Earns $11.6B on Q2 iSales.)

Android 4G smartphones did grow in popularity during the quarter, however. Sprint didn't divulge its sales, but Verizon managed to sell 2.1 million LTE smartphones in the quarter. AT&T noted that it sold 5.5 million smartphones, and 30 percent of its customers were using 4G-capable devices, although that "4G" definition includes the high-speed packet access-plus (HSPA+) network.

For more on the first quarter