While T-Mobile may not be the largest wireless carrier in the United States, it did beat out its competitors when it comes to one important metric: New subscribers.
CNET:
… T-Mobile saw its customer base grow 29 percent during the fourth quarter last year. The consumers included in the analysis were ones that bought a mobile phone for the first time, those who switched carriers and those who renewed contracts with their existing carrier.
The information comes from a recent survey of mobile phone users by research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). The survey found that T-Mobile scored the highest among the four major U.S. carriers in terms of winning over new customers and retaining existing subscribers.
“We take a quarterly view of loyalty and churn, focusing on customers who activate a phone within the quarter,” CIRP partner and co-founder Mike Levin said in a press release. “T-Mobile started the quarter with 10 percent of the consumers in our quarterly survey of phone activators and ended the quarter with 13 percent. This 29 percent increase in share of this quarter’s phone activators is consistent with the recent T-Mobile announcement that they added about 2 million customers.”
While T-Mobile scored best at customer adds and retention, it still lags on phone activations in the fourth quarter. T-Mobile is in third in that category, just slightly ahead of Sprint.
T-Mobile is bringing up the rear when it comes to subscriber numbers, as the magenta carrier boasts over 55 million subscribers, compared to number three Sprint’s 56 million warm bodies.
CIRP’s survey showed AT&T as best in customer loyalty, but lagging in attracting new customers. AT&T retained 88 percent of those that activated a phone in Q4 of 2014, however it didn’t attract as many new customers in the quarter.
CIRP’s survey data is based on a January poll of 500 people who activated a new or used phone furing the fourth quarter of 2014.
