T-Mobile US reported another strong quarter of results, adding 2.2 million new customers in the first quarter and nearly doubling EBITDA. Customer growth included over 1 million postpaid subscribers under its own brand, 807,000 prepaid users and 373,000 wholesale customers, for a total customer base of over 65.5 million at the end of March.
T-Mobile increased its guidance for the full year to 3.2-3.6 million branded postpaid net adds, from earlier guidance of 2.4-3.4 million. The company also raised its outlook for adjusted EBITDA, to USD 9.7-10.2 billion from USD 9.1-9.7 billion. In the first quarter, adjusted EBITDA rose 98 percent year-on-year to USD 2.7 billion. This included a spectrum gain of USD 636 million; excluding the one-time item, adjusted EBITDA was up 52 percent.
Service revenues were up 13.0 percent in Q1 to USD 6.6 billion, while the operator's total revenues rose a slower 10.6 percent to USD 8.6 billion, as only 877,000 of the postpaid net adds included a phone. Total devices sold or leased reached 9.4 million units in the first quarter, including 8.8 million smartphones. Average billings per postpaid account totaled USD 61.90 in the quarter, up 1.6 percent year-on-year. Growth was held back by accounting of the 'Data Stash' rollover offer. The average number of customers per postpaid account increased to 2.59 from 2.36 a year ago.
T-Mobile's net result was a profit of USD 476 million, compared to a loss of USD 63 million a year ago, and operating cash flow more than doubled, to USD 1.025 billion from USD 489 million in Q1 2015. Capital expenditure rose to USD 1.3 billion from USD 1.0 billion a year ago, and T-Mobile maintained its outlook for spending of USD 4.5-4.8 billion in the full year. The company said its recent acquisition of additional 700 MHz band spectrum will allow it to expand its Extended Range LTE service, which covered 194 million people at the end of the quarter.
