T-Mobile added a net total of 2.1 million customers in the fourth quarter, growing to more than 63 million customers overall — still a distant third to industry giants AT&T and Verizon in overall subscribers, but continuing its steady growth as part of its turnaround under CEO John Legere.
For the full year, the company added 8.3 million customers, including 4.5 million branded postpaid customers, a key measure of a wireless carrier’s health. (These customers, who pay at the end of a billing period, typically have better credit than their prepaid peers and are considered more valuable.) That was ahead of T-Mobile’s previous estimate of 3.8 to 4.2 million branded postpaid customers.
The Bellevue, Wash.-based wireless carrier reported the preliminary numbers this morning in advance of an appearance later today by T-Mobile executives at the Citi Internet, Media and Telecommunications Conference in Las Vegas, where the tech world is gathered this week for the Consumer Electronics Show.
T-Mobile has added customers through a series of disruptive “Un-carrier” moves, including a shift away from wireless contracts, paying early termination fees for customers who switch, and programs to help customers use music and video services without counting against their monthly data.
The company’s most recent Un-carrier program, Binge On, has come under criticism for throttling video streams indiscriminately. T-Mobile notes that customers can opt out of the Binge On program at any point.
T-Mobile has struggled to rival the networks of its larger competitors, particularly outside of urban centers, but the company said this morning that it has more than doubled its LTE coverage during the past year, now covering a U.S. population of 304 million people.
