BONN (dpa-AFX) - T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS) on Tuesday reported a loss for the fourth quarter that widened from last year as higher revenues and customer additions were more than offset by an increase in expenses.
T-Mobile US is the fourth largest wireless network in the U.S. The company is the result of a combination of MetroPCS Communications Inc. and T-Mobile USA Inc, and is majority-owned by Deutsche Telekom AG (DTEGY.PK).
During the quarter, T-Mobile recorded net customer additions of 1.65 million, with total branded net customer additions of 981,000. This compares to net customer losses of 61,000 in the prior-year period, with branded net customer losses of 349,000.
The latest quarter's results include branded postpaid net additions of 869,000 and branded prepaid net additions of 112,000. T-Mobile ended the quarter with about 46.68 million customers.
In the latest quarter, AT&T added 566,000 wireless postpaid subscribers, while Verizon Wireless added 1.57 million postpaid customers.
T-Mobile US' postpaid churn rate, or the rate at which postpaid customers exited its network during the quarter, improved to 1.7 percent from 2.5 percent in the prior-year period. However, average monthly revenue per user, or ARPU, declined 9 percent to $50.70 from $55.47 in the same period last year.
T-Mobile' net loss for the fourth quarter widened to $20 million or $0.03 per share from $8 million or $0.01 per share in the year-ago period. On average, twenty one analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report loss of $0.13 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Revenues for the quarter grew 39 percent to $6.83 billion from $4.91 billion in the year-ago period. On a pro forma combined basis, revenues rose 10 percent to $6.83 billion from $6.19 billion in the prior-year period. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $6.95 billion for the quarter.
The company said that the results were helped by the inclusion of MetroPCS results and higher smartphone sales. Total smartphone sales, including sales to branded postpaid and prepaid customers, reached 6.2 million units in the quarter, equivalent to 91 percent of total units sold, and up sharply from 2.8 million units in the prior-year period.
Total operating expenses for the quarter rose 44 percent to $6.69 billion from $4.66 billion in the year-ago period. Cost of equipment sales surged to $2.14 billion from $981 million last year.
For fiscal 2013, T-Mobile US net income was $35 million or $0.05 per share, compared to net loss of $7.34 billion or $13.70 per share last year.
Revenues for the year rose 24 percent to $24.42 billion from $19.72 billion in the prior year. On a pro forma combined basis, total revenues increased 5 percent to $26.13 billion from $24.82 billion last year.
Street expected the company to report earnings of $0.05 per share for the year on revenues of $25.99 billion.
On a pro forma combined basis, T-Mobile added more than 4.4 million total customers, including 2.4 million branded net customer additions. This consisted of more than 2 million branded postpaid customers and 359,000 branded prepaid customers.
This compares to loss of 256,000 customers in 2012, including losses of more than 1.5 million branded customers, consisting of 2.1 million branded postpaid customer losses and 548,000 branded prepaid customer additions.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2014, T-Mobile expects adjusted EBITDA in a range of $5.7 billion to $6.0 billion and cash capital expenditures of $4.3 billion to $4.6 billion.
The company projects branded postpaid net additions for 2014 between 2 million and 3 million.
TMUS closed Monday's regular trading session at $32.31, up $0.28 or 0.87 percent on a volume of 8.06 million shares.
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