T-Mobile’s stock took a bit of a hit after releasing its first-quarter numbers, mostly because the count of new wireless phone customers didn’t quite reach what analysts were hoping for. However, as reported by Bloomberg, the company announced fewer new subscribers than Wall Street had penciled in, causing shares to drop a bit in after-hours trading.This all happened while T-Mobile is slugging it out in the very crowded US wireless scene. T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon are always scrambling for customers in a market where pretty much everyone already has a phone plan. People are watching their wallets, especially after dealing with rising subscription costs over the last few years. All three big carriers are tossing out deals and perks to try and win folks over.
What’s interesting is, even though T-Mobile missed its own target number, it still signed up more new phone customers than AT&T did, and Verizon actually lost subscribers during the same time. It just shows how tight things are right now. Despite that slight miss on new sign-ups, T-Mobile‘s overall financial health for the quarter looked pretty good.
Looking forward, T-Mobile isn’t just sitting back. The company recently rolled out some new plans that come with a five-year price guarantee — a clear play to grab customers thinking about their budget. CEO Mike Sievert also mentioned that if proposed tariffs make phones more expensive, T-Mobile won’t eat that cost, just like AT&T and Verizon said. He did suggest, though, that T-Mobile shouldn’t be hit too hard by other tariff stuff.
There might be a little bit of a pull forward dynamic happening. There was a lot of focus on devices over the past few months.
— Mike Sievert, T-Mobile Chief Executive Officer
Plus, T-Mobile is pushing into new territory. They confirmed their satellite texting and data service will launch commercially in July, and it’ll cost less than they first thought ($10 a month per line, even if you use another carrier). They’re also going strong on home and business internet, beating expectations for new broadband customers this quarter. Thanks to buying a fiber company called Lumos, they’re gearing up to launch “T-Fiber” later this quarter, aiming to connect more homes and businesses directly.So, it’s a bit of a mixed situation for T-Mobile. That subscriber number dip definitely made investors jumpy. But the money side looks decent, they bumped up their profit forecast, and they’ve got these big plans with new service deals, satellite connections, and a major fiber internet push. While grabbing new phone customers is super important, these other moves might help T-Mobile to continue growing.
