We have a new ranking of the “big four” wireless carriers.
T-Mobile has officially passed Sprint and is now the third biggest carrier in the US, according to subscriber count.
T-Mobile reported 58.9 million customers last month when it dropped its latest earnings – a gain of about two million.
Sprint just reported its latest earnings, and gains of 675,000 customers puts its total count at 57.7 million.
“I am proud of the team for successfully executing the first phase of our strategy to stop the decline in customers. We are now one quarter into the second phase, focusing on attracting more quality customers, retaining our customers through a better customer experience and continuously improving the network,” said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure. “As a result, Sprint platform net additions were the highest in nearly three years, postpaid churn dropped by 46 basis points sequentially, and the network received more awards in major markets, all of which will position the company for profitable growth.”
But stopping the decline wasn’t enough to keep it from falling to last place.
Now that it’s official, how about we focus on why @TMobile is succeeding? Hint: Listening to customers!! http://t.co/VVq7ut5hFB
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) August 4, 2015
Earlier this year, T-Mobile CEO John Legere declared that his company had already surpassed Sprint – but this makes it official.
“Going into 2013, Sprint had 55 million customers. Going into ’14, they had 55 million customers. Going into this year, they have 55 million customers. In that period, they lost 3.3 million postpaid customers as well,” said Legere at the time. “T-Mobile had 33 million customers. We merged with MetroPCS and went to 42 million customers, and we’ve since added 13 million customers to get up to, guess what, 55 million customers.”
Now, according to official filings, the two are tied no more.
Image via T-Mobile, Facebook