T-Mobile USA Claims Strong Profits, Subscriber Growth

[Jerry Raia]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mobilepipeline.com/168600709?cid=RSSfeed' target='_blank'>http://www.mobilepipeline.com/168600709?cid=RSSfeed</a><br /><br /></div><i>"T-Mobile USA Thursday reported strong increases in income and newly-added customers for the second quarter of 2005. The company reported net income of $387 million, which it said is a 60 percent increase compared to the same quarter a year ago. Overall revenues for the second quarter were slightly more than $3 billion, compared to about $2.85 billion for the first quarter."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/tmo.gif" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/><br /><br />I'm glad they are doing better but they are still in a distant 4th place according to the article. The big guys need more competition if we are to ever get more of what we want like better handsets and features.

[surfer]

I've got a prepaid card from Tmobile that I use when im in the US and everytime i've called customer service they have been nothing but nice (as swedes are kinda stupid :wink: ) to me. So this is no surprice to me.

[Mike Temporale]

Hopefully with news like this, T-Mo won't decide to sell off their US network - as was reported earlier.

I would hate to see the US end up like Canada, with only a couple real networks and almost no real choice. :-(

[Janak Parekh]

I'm glad they are doing better but they are still in a distant 4th place according to the article. The big guys need more competition if we are to ever get more of what we want like better handsets and features.
Except T-Mobile's not it. Their "smartphone" selection sucks.

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

I would hate to see the US end up like Canada, with only a couple real networks and almost no real choice. :-(
There is an advantage to the consolidation of carriers -- it's now possible to get national coverage with one carrier, and finally US customers are able to get good national GSM service. It was a lot worse in the old, fragmented carrier days.

And, besides, we only have 4 big carriers as it stands? I certainly wouldn't call it choice in the European sense.

--janak

[surfer]

And, besides, we only have 4 big carriers as it stands? I certainly wouldn't call it choice in the European sense.

--janak

I can't call it much of a big choice but here in Sweden we have many cell phone operators

Four who have their own network (three, teliasonera, vodaphone, tele2comviq ) and seven virtual operators but we don't have unlimited GPRS :(

[revolution.cx]

It just goes to show that if you don't spend any money on cell towers or roaming agreements you can really rack up the profits.

Aside from their generally good customer service I sometimes get the feeling there are only like 50 people working behind the scenes at tmo.

[wshwe]

Eventually T-Mo's coverage weaknesses will hurt it. Just because T-Mo is doing well right now doesn't mean things will remain bright in the future.

[Jerry Raia]

Eventually T-Mo's coverage weaknesses will hurt it. Just because T-Mo is doing well right now doesn't mean things will remain bright in the future.

The article does mention that their new enrollment is down.

[possmann]

Why can't t-mo just start selling some of the phones they are selling over in Europe here - like (ahem) THE SMARTPHONE?!?!?!?! :bad-words:

[aristoBrat]

It just goes to show that if you don't spend any money on cell towers or roaming agreements you can really rack up the profits.
Huh?
Over 1,000 new cell sites on air in Q2 2005 - almost 31,000 cell sites on air in total
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050811/105947.html?.v=1

Crapping out 1,000+ towers in 90 days isn't too bad, IMO. They spent $850M in Q2 for CapEx, $236M of which was for more spectrum.

And still made money... :)