The four major mobile carriers have presented their 2008 second quarter financial results, and it’s really a tough time to be Sprint. We compiled a quick scorecard after T-Mobile USA reported its numbers this morning, so for an at-a-glance view of which added the most new subscribers (Verizon) or which makes the most money off of each subscriber (Sprint), see below.
AT&T reported Q2 earnings on July 23:
- Wireless revenue: $12 billion
- Wireless operating income: $3.1 billion
- Churn (postpaid only): 1.1 percent
- Net adds: 1.3 million
- Total subscribers: 72.9 million
- Data revenue: $2.5 billion
- Average ARPU: $50.60
Verizon reported Q2 earnings on July 28:
- Wireless revenue: $12.1 million billion
- Wireless operating income: N/A
- Blended churn: 1.12 percent, postpaid 0.83 percent
- Net adds: 1.5 million
- Total subscribers: 68.7 million
- Data revenue: $2.6 billion
- Average ARPU: $51.53
Sprint reported Q2 results on August 6:
- Wireless revenue: $7.7 billion
- Wireless operating loss: $142 million
- Churn (postpaid only): “just under” 2 percent
- Net loss: 901,000
- Total subscribers: 51.9 million
- Data revenue: N/A
- Average ARPU: $53.47 (excludes wholesale customers)
T-Mobile reported Q2 earnings today:
- Wireless revenue: $4.85 billion
- Wireless net income: $452 million
- Blended churn: 2.7 percent, postpaid 1.9 percent
- Net adds: 668,000
- Total subscribers: 31.5 million
- Data revenue: N/A
- Average ARPU: $52
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2 trackbacks so far
2:12 PM PT
[...] was just reading one of my favorite blogs GigaOM and Stacey Higginbotham compiled the jist of the Q2 US mobile provider results. I find it very interesting that it seems like [...]
1:07 PM PT
[...] is making people pick a wireless-only option — a theory supported by robust growth in the wireless additions at Verizon (1.5 million net new subscribers) and AT&T Wireless (1.3 million net new [...]
8 comments so far
8:59 AM PT
Verizon’s Q2 revenue was 12.1 BILLION… not million. I was real confused until I checked that one out.
9:28 AM PT
Dawson, thanks for the eagle eyes. We’ve fixed it.
10:15 AM PT
Stacey, something you can clarify …does ARPU include land line subscribers? …if you divide ATT mobile revs by mobile subscribers ARPU is closer to $ 165 - even those on family plan pay 9.99 a month or 120 a year…am I missing something?
12:09 PM PT
vinnie, I pulled that number from the AT&T Q2 investor presentation. It refers to the blended wireless ARPU based only on services revenue. My AT&T revenue number includes non-services revenue. The services revenue totaled $11B, and since the ARPU reflect monthly usage, you dived the revenue by the subscriber base and then divide that by three to reflect the months in the quarter. I’m still 30 cents off AT&T’s ARPU number, but that’s probably a result of differing ARPU for postpaid and prepaid accounts that should be averaged out.
Hope that helps.
12:12 PM PT
Vinnie, here’s the AT&T presentation and the data is on page 4: (link)
12:47 PM PT
T-Mobile’s ARPU does not seem to make sense. T-Mobile has the worst data network of the big 4. I would expect AT&T to have a much larger ARPU than T-Mobile because of the superior 3G network and the more sophisticated data related services/apps that AT&T offers.
Anyhow, love the quick summaries.
9:01 AM PT
T-Mobile’s data ARPU is driven mostly by SMS and MMS revenues and plans.
10:25 AM PT
Stacey I did not divide by 3 for the quarter - duh! thanks
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