Sprint announced preliminary results for the company’s fiscal third quarter late today, disclosing it added 967,000 net subscribers in the last three months of the year.
Based on these early numbers, it was likely able to maintain its position as the third-largest U.S. carrier, fighting off T-Mobile, which had threatened to overtake its position by the end of the year.
T-Mobile said early this morning it added 2.1 million customers during the period, bringing its total customer count to just over 55 million — 55.018 million, to be precise.
Sprint did not disclose its total subscriber base (official numbers will come out in February), but based on how many subscribers it added, it probably remains larger than T-Mobile — by a thin margin.
At the end of the third quarter, it had 55.037 million customers, so it likely has close to 56 million.
UPDATE: A Sprint spokesperson confirmed it had about 56 million customers at the end of the quarter. While the preliminary numbers do not include non-Sprint platform customers, from Clearwire and other divisions, the company said those subscribers make up a relatively small percentage of its overall base.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere had pledged this summer that T-Mobile would surpass Sprint in total customers in 2014, but more recently he hedged that statement, adding that if it didn’t happen in 2014, it would happen soon.
More important for Sprint than fending off T-Mobile’s attack is that it added 30,000 postpaid net additions in the fourth quarter, reversing several straight quarters of losses. In the prior quarter, the company had lost 272,000 postpaid net additions, and in the first nine months of the year, it had lost 453,000.
The turnaround was not necessarily expected. During the company’s last quarterly conference call, CEO Marcelo Claure said returning to postpaid growth was a top priority, and that he was optimistic he would be able to deliver in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t a given.
“Sprint’s first priority is a return to customer growth and our results during the last quarter show we are on the right track,” Claure said, in a release. “While we still have work to do, it is clear that our aggressive actions to provide customers with the best value in wireless are gaining momentum.”
In the fourth quarter, Sprint said it added the highest number of postpaid gross additions in three years, and that postpaid gross additions for phones (not tablets) increased 20 percent for the quarter year-over-year.
Since Claure joined the company in August, it has launched several promotions.
A recent report found that Sprint’s catchy promotion offering to “Cut Your Bill in Half” was very effective in drawing new customers into its stores. It also recently offered a “iPhone for Life leasing plan” that offers the lowest total cost of iPhone ownership for consumers starting at only $20 a month.
