T-Mobile USA hurt by iPhone 4S sales

T-Mobile USA will soon feel the sting of being the only carrier in the US without the iPhone 4S. As part of its quarterly earnings report, T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm said the carrier is concerned about its churn rate in the important December quarter and how it may be affected by iPhone 4S launches at Verizon Wireless, Sprint and AT&T.

T-Mobile is currently the #4 wireless carrier in the US and is struggling to compete with its bigger rivals. This past quarter the carrier added 126,000 net customers but most of those were prepay customers. The carrier lost 186,000 important, revenue-generating contract customers. This number will likely go up in the current quarter now that the iPhone 4S is available. T-Mobile is not selling the iPhone 4S because its 3G network runs on 1700MHz AWS, a band that's not supported by the iPhone.

Up-to-date sales numbers are not yet available, but all three carriers with the iPhone 4S report that the handset is selling well, and in the case of Sprint, is selling beyond expectation. We will have to wait until early next year to gauge the true impact, but it doesn't bode well for T-Mobile. Also on the horizon for the wireless carrier is its impending merger with AT&T, another factor that may influence its ability to add new subscribers.

[Via AllThingsD]

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Source: http://www.telekom.com/dtag/cms/content/dt/en/596274?archivA…

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T-Mobile USA will soon feel the sting of being the only carrier in the US without the iPhone 4S. As part of its quarterly earnings...

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sumoroach

I'd be on T-Mobile right now if they could support 3G data on the iPhone.

As much as I'd like to stick w/ GSM, if the next iPhone doesn't support 1700MHz, I'm off to Virgin Mobile.

December 07 2011 at 4:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

VanillaSpice

"T-Mobile is not selling the iPhone 4S because its 3G network runs on 1700MHz AWS, a band that's not supported by the iPhone."

Technically correct but meaningless. Even if their network did work with the iPhone 4S, or even if their network works with future iPhones, the conversation with Apple will go thusly:

T-Mobile: "We want the iPhone!"

Apple: "Remember that court case we had with Samsung, where you filed an amicus brief supporting the other side's wilful and flagrant theft of our intellectual property?"

T-Mobile: "Ummm ....."

Apple: "You can't have the iPhone."

November 10 2011 at 10:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

shadowbottle

Yeah.. that was kind of the idea. Now they look like a much more appropriate acquisition by AT&T to legislators - which T-Mobile is /really/ pushing for. I thought this stuff was obvious.

November 10 2011 at 1:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Uncle Bernie

Hmmmmm-tell Hummmm that T-Mobile is the worst.

November 10 2011 at 11:06 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mike Gaudiello

Sounds like my situation. I was on T-Mobile for several years and honestly I loved them. Good service, EXCELLENT experience when I ever had to call into customer service, and it was cheap as hell. I would had stayed with them in a heartbeat, but I knew I wanted a GSM iPhone, so my only real choice was AT&T (I couldn't see being stuck on EDGE). No problems with Big Blue so far, but it's only been 3 1/2 weeks, lol.

November 10 2011 at 10:23 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

diamondsw

Huh, I thought I saw reports when the iPhone 4S came out that the wireless chip therein would support the T-Mobile 3G frequencies. Did this turn out not to be the case?

November 10 2011 at 10:17 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to diamondsw's comment

Kendall Tawes

They were just rumours.

November 10 2011 at 1:10 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply