T-Mobile Passes 100 Million Subscriber Mark Despite Pandemic Challenges

million in free cash flow, headed into upcoming FCC spectrum auctions. Free cash flow was $1.1 billion a year ago. The U.S. “has never seen anything like this network build,” CEO Mike Sievert said on a financial call, noting the company moved further ahead of AT&T on total customers. T-Mobile plans to offer 5G nationwide using its 2.5 GHz spectrum by the end of next year, he said. The band has both “massive capacity and … reach, measured in miles from our towers,” he said. T-Mobile’s low-band network already covers 270 million people, he said. “T-Mobile’s momentum has continued to accelerate quarter after quarter, as we profitably take share and outpace the competition,” he said: “We surprised the skeptics, and the optimists, yet again. … We’re working hard to go big and to go fast.” The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges “with a much slower switching environment than a year ago,” Sievert said. T-Mobile reported $1.2 billion in earnings on revenue of $19.3 billion. That compares with $870 million and $11 billion a year ago, before the Sprint buy closed. Some 79.7 million subscribers had post-paid and 20.6 million prepaid plans. Postpaid churn was 0.9%, a slight increase over the first two quarters of the year. T-Mobile “remains highly confident” it will deliver $43 billion of synergies from the Sprint deal, with $1.2 billion this year and more than twice that likely next year. Sievert credited avoided site builds and a streamlined marketing push. T-Mobile is also consolidating back office operations. It shut off the Sprint brand for new customer sales at the start of August.