T-Mobile Us Inc (NASDAQ: TMUS), the third largest mobile carrier in the U.S., added 1 million customers during the fourth quarter of 2019. For the entire year, the telecommunications giant added 7 million new subscribers.
Expectations were in the realm of 500,000 new subscribers, according to the research firm FactSet, however the 1 million figure from last year is the same as fourth quarter the year before.
T-Mobile has been seeing steady growth for some time.
As of the third quarter of 2019, the company was up to over 84 million subscribers, which is twice as many subscribers since 2013. In fact, T-Mobile reported during third quarter that it has experienced twenty-six quarters in a row of adding more than 1 million new subscribers to its plans.
What 2018 showed was that, compared to its counterparts, T-Mobile showed the highest rates of wireless customers reporting brand loyalty in that they wouldn't desire to switch their wireless service provider.
Major competitors of T-Mobile include Verizon (NYSE: VZ), AT&T Inc (NYSE: T), and Sprint Corp (NYSE: S).
In comparison to T-Mobile's 1 million new customers during the fourth quarter, Verizon Communications Inc. added 650,000 customers during the same time period.
When it comes to Sprint, T-Mobile actually first proposed merging with the smaller telecommunications company back in April 2018, but nothing has been finalized yet. A decision may emerge on that merger within the next couple of weeks, which has been pending due to lawsuits.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere, who has served as the company's CEO since 2012, expects the merger with Sprint to finalize early 2020. If passed, it would be a $26.5 billion merger.
Mike Sievert, T-Mobile's COO who was previously considering a CEO position with WeWork, will take over as CEO of T-Mobile in May 2020, a move which has been planned to take place once the company's merger with Sprint becomes official.