T-Mobile posted a better-than-expected set of Q3 2024 results. Revenues came in at $20.16 billion, up 5% versus last year. Earnings stood at $2.61 per share, ahead of estimates. T-Mobile added 865,000 postpaid phone subscribers beating rivals AT&T and Verizon, while also growing its postpaid phone per-user revenue by about 2%.
T-Mobile has also made steady inroads into the broadband market with its fixed wireless broadband offering, using the excess spectrum it acquired via the Sprint deal. As of Q2 2024, its total wireless broadband base stood at over 5 million customers. The carrier also intends to expand into the wired broadband space, partnering with private equity firm EQT to buy Lumos, a fiber network operator in the Mid-Atlantic.
T-Mobile has acquired Ka'ena Corporation, a company that owns budget wireless mobile virtual network operators Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile. The deal is likely to enable T-Mobile to bring in more budget-conscious customers via online channels. Moreover, since both carriers operate on top of the T-Mobile network, there could be some cost savings as well.
Below are key drivers of T-Mobile's value that present opportunities for upside or downside to the current Trefis price estimate:
Network quality and pricing remain the biggest differentiating factors in the wireless business. While T-Mobile was a laggard of sorts in terms of network coverage and speeds, this has changed with the company's growing low-band spectrum interests and wide 5G coverage.
For additional details, select a driver above or a division from the interactive Trefis split for T-Mobile at the top of the page.
T-Mobile US is the second-largest wireless communications services provider in the United States, providing voice, messaging, and data in the postpaid, prepaid, and wholesale markets. The company had about 120 million subscribers as of the end of 2023. T-Mobile acquired smaller rival Sprint in April 2020.
We estimate that the Postpaid Mobile Plans & Phones segment is more valuable than the Prepaid Mobile Plans & Phones segment due to:
T-Mobile had close to 73 million postpaid phone subscribers as of early 2023, compared to about 21 million prepaid subscribers. Moreover, the postpaid mobile market in the United States is significantly larger than the prepaid phone market, with postpaid plans accounting for roughly 4 out of 5 wireless phone connections in the country.
Monthly ARPUs for T-Mobile's postpaid users are higher than ARPUs for its prepaid users due to higher data and voice usage. Moreover, postpaid users are more loyal, leading to lower churn rates. This translates to lower customer retention expenses and better margins.
T-Mobile presently has the best 5G network coverage among U.S. carriers. As of December 2023, the carrier's extended range 5G network covered over 330 million people, leveraging the company's far-reaching 600 MHz spectrum holdings. Also, the carrier's higher-speed Ultra Capacity 5G (5G UC) service now covers 260 million people. The strong 5G network is helping T-Mobile win over more customers, improve its pricing power, and help retain existing subscribers better.
T-Mobile is emerging as a strong player in the fixed wireless market, with its Home Internet offering leveraging its 5G network. The service had over 5.5 million subscribers as of Q3 2024. The fixed wireless plans are more affordable versus competing offerings, priced at about $50 per month when customers sign up for automatic payment.
