• T-Mobile Lost Nearly Half A Million Subscribers Last Quarter

    Devin Coldewey

    Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

    Friday, May 6th, 2011

    Trouble looms on the horizon for T-Mobile as carrier hemorrhages subscribers. The first three months of 2011 saw 471,000 contract customers walk out the door, and even including off-contract customers, they’re still a hundred thousand in the red. Meanwhile the competition is seeing healthy boosts: AT&T is looking at a net positive of two million subscribers, and the newly available iPhone is giving Verizon’s financials a boost as well. Poor T-Mo isn’t doing so hot.

    What does this mean for the proposed buyout by AT&T? Arguably it works in AT&T’s favor, as they could be seen as doing the struggling carrier a favor by picking it up and spreading the risk out. That’s for regulators to decide, however, and who knows what may happen in the next year?

    My question is, do they have enough to keep buying the T-Mobile girl new dresses? I sincerely hope so.

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