Subscriber dynamics were in flux in the second quarter as the four Tier 1 US wireless operators grappled with shifting pricing plans, increased competition and tablet growth.
Tablets, new pricing plans and the "uncarrier" brought about some interesting subscriber dynamics in the US wireless market in the second quarter.
During the quarter, we saw Verizon Wireless make up for its slip in smartphone additions with huge tablet gains. AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), on the other hand, trailed Verizon in total postpaid net adds, but far outdid Big Red in the still-important smartphone category, thanks in part to its Next device financing plans. Both lost customers on the prepaid front, with AT&T particularly feeling the burn as it has yet to move Cricket customers to its network and lost some while trying to do so. (See AT&T Plans a Prepaid Cricket Attack.)
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Meanwhile, the big two's smaller competitors and merger-maybes, Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) and T-Mobile US Inc. , fared quite differently in the quarter. Sprint's customer exodus continued (the figures here refer to Sprint's fiscal first quarter, which ended June 30), albeit at a slower rate than before, and it appeared most of them were going to T-Mobile, which managed to pull in 1.5 million new customers in the quarter. (See Slim Postpaid Pickings for Sprint, T-Mobile .)
To break it down, the chart below details the subscriber wins and losses for the quarter, including the operator's non-human connections.
Total Net Customer Adds | Postpaid Growth | Prepaid Growth | Smartphones Added | Tablets Added | Connected Devices | Total Customers | |
AT&T | 634,000 | 1.03 million | 405,000 (loss) | 576,000 | 360,000 | 175,000 | 98.6 million |
Verizon Wireless | 1.4 million | 304,000 | 14,000 (loss) | 304,000 | 1.15 million | Not reported | 104.6 million |
Sprint (fiscal Q1) | 220,000 (loss) | 181,000 (loss) | 542,000 (loss) | 5 million | Not reported | 503,000 (wholesale and affiliate customers) | 53 million |
T-Mobile | 1.5 million | 908,000 | 102,000 | 6.2 million | 329,000 (mobile broadband, mostly tablets) | Not reported | 50 million |
For more, check out Light Reading's Q2 earnings coverage:
— Sarah Reedy, Senior Editor, Light Reading
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