2022 was ‘the best year ever’ for the company, says CEO Sievert
T-Mobile US closed out 2022 with 1.8 million net postpaid customers in the fourth quarter, up 6.4 million for the full year, exceeding guidance and a record low churn rate of 0.88%. Q4 2022 — 6.4 million in 2022, exceeding guidance
CEO Mike Sievert said in a conference call about the results with analysts that 2022 is the company’s “best ever year” and that it will position itself as a mobile network that delivers both network quality and value. said it met or exceeded guidance on the whole.
“T-Mobile is not only the leader in 5G, it is now the leader in the network as a whole, which opens up a huge growth path for us in the future. We shared it where it wasn’t, and now it’s a winner,” said Sievert. As an example, he noted that T-Mobile’s business offering posted record net phone additions in the fourth quarter, while Verizon posted high business churn.
In broadband, the company saw net additions of 524,000 in the fourth quarter and 2 million for the year. Asked about wireline service/strategy consolidation and bundling during the quarterly conference call, Sievert said he was not interested in a major change in the company’s strategy to focus on wireless. “That’s where the future is and where we want to be.”
T-Mo reports a 4% increase in total services revenue to $15.5 billion in the fourth quarter and a 5% year-over-year increase to $61.3 billion in 2022. Postpaid services revenue growth was even stronger, up 7% year over year for the quarter and 8% for the full year.
Net income increased 250% compared to Q4 2021 but decreased 14% year-over-year to $2.6 billion primarily due to merger-related charges of $3.7 billion .
Sievert also said that T-Mobile US’s investment in cybersecurity “took a serious turn” a few weeks ago. “After identifying a criminal attempt to access data through our API, we shut it down within 24 hours,” he said. “More importantly, our systems and policies protected the most sensitive types of customer data from being accessed. …We were disappointed that criminals were able to obtain customer information. However, we are confident that our proactive cybersecurity plan will enable us to achieve our goal of being second to none in this area.”
Other key takeaways from T-Mo’s fourth quarter and full year 2022 numbers:
-Postpaid net additions were 927,000 in the quarter and 3.1 million for the year, with postpaid phone churn of 0.92% in Q4 and 0.88% in 2022.
– Prepaid net additions were 25,000 in the fourth quarter and 338,000 for the year. The annual prepaid churn rate was 2.77%, according to T-Mo, the lowest in the company’s history.
-The company recently announced a commitment to reach its net-zero target by 2040. This is a first for the US wireless industry.