Faced with heightened competition from competitors, T-Mobile missed analysts’ forecasts for third-quarter growth, which could be an alarming anticipation of a severe holiday season.
The Bellevue-based wireless operator reported 1.3 million new monthly subscribers, including 673,000 new telephone subscribers. The company also added 586,000 customers using tablets and hotspots and said the addition of a home Internet was a record.
Analysts predicted 1.33 million new T-Mobile subscribers, including 760,000 telephone subscribers. AT&T, which offered free phones to new and existing customers, added 1.2 million subscribers, including 928,000 phone subscribers.
T-Mobile expects to end the year with at least 5.1 million customers and 5.3 million customers. This is a slight increase in the lower bound of her forecast. Analysts were expecting a gain of $ 5.16 million for the year.
T-Mobile is a year or more ahead of AT&T and Verizon in mid-lane 5G network expansion, but the return of holiday promotions like $ 1,000 phone discounts from these competitors threatens to distract consumers. Both AT&T and Verizon have begun rolling out their own mid-range 5G networks in an effort to close the gap.
By the end of the year, T-Mobile is targeting 500,000 home users. In April, the company launched a service for $ 60 a month that provides fast Internet connections in homes. The price dropped to $ 50 last month.
Verizon said it had 150,000 home broadband users in October. T-Mobile’s third-quarter profit, announced Tuesday, was 55 cents a share on sales of $ 19.6 billion. Analysts had expected 51 cents at $ 20.1 billion.
T-Mobile shares fell 2% to $ 113.49 in extended trading, after which they rebounded somewhat. Shares are down 14% this year, compared with 12% for AT&T and 11% for Verizon.
