Image source: T-Mobile.
What happened?
No. 3 domestic wireless carrier T-Mobile (TMUS 1.48%) has announced preliminary subscriber figures for the third quarter. The Un-carrier has added roughly 753,000 branded postpaid net additions and 650,000 prepaid net customer additions so far in the third quarter, with just over a week left before the quarter closes.
The company says the poached customers are coming from all three of the other major wireless carriers, and represent sequential increases relative to second-quarter figures. T-Mobile believes it has grabbed 250,000 customers from Verizon, 400,000 customers from AT&T, and 300,000 customers from Sprint.
T-Mobile attributes its aggressive network modernization and expansion to being able to win over customers.
Does it matter?
T-Mobile is reaffirming its full-year outlook, which calls for 2016 branded postpaid net additions in a range of 3.4 million to 3.8 million. This guidance was raised last quarter. Management will give a more detailed update on the October earnings call.
The company recently introduced its ONE unlimited plan, which it is pushing aggressively even though there's a lot of fine print associated with the plan. As T-Mobile grows, it is starting to increasingly resemble the carriers that CEO John Legere likes to demonize, but the brazen marketing strategy is still paying off in the form of impressive subscriber numbers.
