T-Mobile US CEO Mike Sievert has explained how the second largest telecom operator has become the growth leader in wireless business in the United States. T-Mobile second largest telecom operator in the United States.

T-Mobile US became the second largest wireless operator – beating AT&T – during the second quarter of 2020.

T-Mobile US has 100 million mobile phone customers on its mobile network — after reporting record-high postpaid net additions.

T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said: “Customers are choosing T-Mobile in record numbers because we are the only ones that can deliver this combination of value and experience with a true 5G network that is available to customers in every single state.”

T-Mobile US, Inc. reported third quarter results today, highlighted by crossing the 100 million customer milestone after reporting record-high postpaid net additions that were nearly as much as the rest of the industry combined. T-Mobile, the undisputed growth leader in wireless, delivered industry-best results in total customer net additions, postpaid net additions, and postpaid phone net additions while simultaneously delivering net income and adjusted EBITDA growth. With these strong results, the company is raising its second half 2020 guidance for profitability and cash flow.

Since closing its merger with Sprint seven months ago, T-Mobile has been driving hard on integration including unifying employees and customers under one brand, rapidly improving the Sprint customer experience, and quickly rolling out 2.5 GHz spectrum to build the world’s best 5G network. Merger synergies are being realized faster than expected and the company expects to deliver more than $1.2 billion of synergies in 2020.

“Last quarter T-Mobile overtook AT&T to become #2 in U.S. wireless and today we announced our highest ever postpaid net adds. Now, with over 100 million wireless customers and America’s largest 5G network, there is no doubt that we’re the growth leader in wireless,” said Mike Sievert, T-Mobile CEO. “Customers are choosing T-Mobile in record numbers because we are the only ones that can deliver this combination of value and experience with a true 5G network that is available to customers in every single state! We’re consistently and profitably outpacing the competition – and we’re just getting started!”

Industry-Leading Customer Growth

• Net customer additions were 2,035,000 in Q3 2020, a record-high and the 23^rd consecutive quarter of industry-leading performance in this category. The total customer count increased to a record-high of 100.4 million.
• Postpaid net customer additions were 1,979,000 in Q3 2020, a record-high and the 11^th consecutive quarter of industry-leading performance in this category.
• Postpaid phone net customer additions were 689,000 in Q3 2020, leading the industry and marking the 27^th consecutive quarter of leading the national carriers. Postpaid phone churn was 0.90%.
• Postpaid other net customer additions were 1,290,000 in Q3 2020, leading the industry and nearly double Verizon and AT&T combined as T-Mobile for Business continued to connect educational institutions during COVID-19.
• Prepaid net customer additions were 56,000 in Q3 2020 and prepaid churn was 2.86%.

Delivering Merger Synergies Faster Than Expected

T-Mobile remains highly confident in its ability to deliver $43 billion of synergies and achieve the $6 billion of annualized savings from the Sprint merger from a combination of cost avoidance and expense reductions. In fact, the company is delivering faster than expected and targeting more than $1.2 billion of synergies in 2020.

• Expect more than $600 million of network synergies primarily from avoided new site builds and early site decommissioning.
• Expect approximately $500 million of sales, service and marketing synergies primarily from accelerated rationalization of retail stores, marketing consolidation and organizational redesign.
• Expect approximately $100 million of back office synergies primarily from accelerated organizational redesign.

The network team is quickly adding capacity to the T-Mobile network to facilitate more Sprint customer traffic. 15 percent of Sprint postpaid customer traffic has already been moved over to the T-Mobile network and customer network migrations have begun, as the company enabled cross-provisioning last month, thus separating the network migration from the billing system migration and enabling gross additions and upgrades from Sprint customers to be activated on the T-Mobile network.

Extending 5G Network Leadership

T-Mobile is on a mission to build America’s best 5G network, offering all of the Un-carrier customers unrivalled coverage and capacity in every place that they live, work and play. The company has already been the first to launch a nationwide 5G network, first to launch standalone 5G, and first to have 5G coverage in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

• America’s largest 5G network covers 270 million people in 8,300 cities and towns across 1.4 million square miles. That’s more square miles of 5G coverage than Verizon and AT&T combined – 3.5x more than Verizon and 2x more than AT&T.
• T-Mobile continued to leverage its network to expand into new complementary 5G business opportunities like broadband and video to grow revenue per household.
  • Expanded its Home Internet Pilot service to parts of 450 cities and towns, laying the groundwork for a nationwide 5G commercial launch of fixed wireless broadband.
  • Launched its latest Un-carrier move with the introduction of next-gen streaming services TVision LIVE, VIBE and CHANNELS, and the TVision HUB, a new streaming device.

Raising H2 2020 Outlook

• Postpaid phone net customer additions are expected to be between 1.3 million and 1.4 million, including 600,000 to 700,000 in Q4 2020. The prior guidance of 1.7 million to 1.9 million total postpaid net customer additions was achieved with Q3 2020 results.
• Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $13.6 billion to $13.7 billion, up from prior guidance of $12.4 billion to $12.7 billion. The Adjusted EBITDA target includes leasing revenues of $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion, compared to prior guidance of $2.4 billion to $2.6 billion.
• Cash purchases of property and equipment, including capitalized interest are expected to be between $6.7 billion and $6.9 billion, compared to prior guidance of $6.5 billion to $6.9 billion.
• Merger-related costs are expected to be $800 million to $1 billion before taxes, unchanged from prior guidance. These costs are excluded from Adjusted EBITDA but will impact Net income and cash flows.
• Net cash provided by operating activities, including payments for Merger-related costs, is expected to be in the range of $5.9 billion to $6.1 billion, up from prior guidance of $5.3 billion to $5.7 billion. T-Mobile second largest telecom operator in the United States
• Free Cash Flow, including payments for Merger-related costs, is expected to be in the range of $700 million to $900 million, up from prior guidance of $300 million to $500 million. Free Cash Flow guidance does not assume any material net cash inflows from securitization.