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Jan. 30, 2009

T-Mobile USA says it has added only 621,000 net new wireless customers for Q4 2008, compared with about 670,000 in the third quarter of 2008, and 951,000 in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Most of these sales were prepaid. T-Mobile’s sales performance follow those reported this week by the nation’s two largest wireless carriers.

For its part, Verizon Wireless added about 1.37 million in the 4th quarter, and AT&T added 2.1 million subscribers during the same time.

For the whole year, T-Mobile added more than 4 million net new customers, including 1.13 million acquired as part of the SunCom Wireless acquisition in Feb. 2008, ending the year with 32.8 million customers.

T-Mobile’s prepaid net additions were 355,000 in the 4th quarter of last year compared with 377,000 in the 3rd quarter, and up from 218,000 in the 4th quarter of 2007.

Overall, contract churn rate stood at about 2.4 percent in the 4th quarter, in line with the 3rd quarter of last year and up from 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Blended churn, including both contract and prepaid customers, stood at about 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

With the launch of the G1 handset with Google and the Samsung Behold (both 3G converged devices) nearly 40 percent of the wireless devices sold to contract customers in the fourth quarter were converged devices, of which more than half were 3G enabled, T-Mobile said.

In a prepared statement, T-Mobile CEO Robert Dotson said the aggressive buildout of its 3G network positions the wireless provider to deliver full-blown 3G services and seize on the upside in consumer data adoption.

“3G-enabled devices like the T-Mobile G1 are delivering a steady stream of new mobile services, while creating some of the highest levels of customer satisfaction we've ever seen at T-Mobile,” said Dotson.

T-Mobile plans to release full fourth-quarter financial results on Feb. 27.

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Source: T-Mobile USA.