All four of tier-1 carriers have submitted their earnings reports for the January to March period. Here’s a recap of some of the major highlights and surprises:
Postpaid Phone Net Additions
Dominant players Verizon and AT&T both lost postpaid phone subscribers during the quarter, to the tune of 8,000 and 363,000, respectively. Sprint surprised with 22,000 postpaid phone net additions, but its gains were dwarfed by the 877,000 postpaid phone net additions reported by T-Mobile.
Postpaid Churn
Verizon came out on top in the measure of postpaid churn with .96 percent, followed by AT&T with 1.10 percent. T-Mobile reported a churn rate of 1.33 percent, while Sprint brought up the rear with a churn rate of 1.73 percent for the quarter.
Upgrade Rate
All the harping about slowing upgrade cycles rang true in this quarter’s figures. AT&T and Verizon’s upgrade rates fell to 5 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively, in the January to March quarter. Sprint’s upgrade rate also dropped to 5.9 percent for the quarter from 7.5 percent the year prior and 9.3 percent the prior quarter. T-Mobile managed to break the mold with a 7 percent upgrade rate but even that was down from 8 percent the previous year and 10 percent the prior quarter.
Network Investments
Moving into 2016, each of the carriers laid out their capital expenditure plans. Verizon topped the list with a planned $12 billion in capex, while AT&T followed close behind with the expectation of $10 billion in capex. T-Mobile said it was looking to invest $5 billion in capex, less than half of Verizon’s expected total. In a surprise move after laying out an extensive network densification vision, Sprint said it is only planning for $3 billion in capex this year. The carrier cited the need to wait for municipal approvals for its projects as the reason for the capex drop.
To view the full carrier earnings reports, click here for Verizon, AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile.
Filed Under: Carriers
