T-Mobile Earnings Good Enough to Raise the Price Sprint Will Pay?

Net customer additions in the second quarter totaled 1.47 million, up from 1.13 million in the same period of last year. For the first half of 2014, net additions have more than doubled from 1.71 million a year ago to 3.86 million. Customer churn in the quarter was 1.5%, flat year-over-year and sequentially.

T-Mobile claimed 50.55 million customers at the end of the second quarter, up from 49.08 million in the year ago quarter and up from 46.68 million at the end of December 2013. Branded postpaid (contract) customers total 24.53 million, up from 23.62 million and branded prepaid customers totaled 15.64 million, up from 15.54 million a year ago.

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Monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) fell sequentially by 2.3% to $49.32, which T-Mobile attributed to the growth of its Simple Choice plans, a non-recurring drop in some regulatory charges, and an adjustment to account for refunds to customers for premium text messaging charges. Adjusting for these non-recurring items cuts the ARPU drop to 1.1%, or $49.93.

T-Mobile said it sold 6.2 million smartphones in the second quarter, which includes sales to prepaid branded customers. Smartphone sales accounted for 93% of phone sales in the quarter and smartphone penetration at the end of the second quarter is 83%.

The company’s CEO tooted the company’s horn:

We have completely reversed T-Mobile’s trajectory and started a revolution that is changing the rules in wireless. Now — with more than 50 million customers, 1.5 million customers added this quarter and 5 quarters in a row of over 1 million net new customers — we are proud to be the fastest growing wireless company in America, with the fastest 4G LTE network and, just this morning, recognized for having the best Customer Service nationwide.

In its outlook statement, T-Mobile raised its forecast of net postpaid subscriber additions from a range of 2.8 to 3.3 million to a new range of 3 to 3.5 million. The forecast for adjusted EBITDA remains unchanged at $5.6 to $5.8 billion.

We noted Wednesday that an announcement of a merger between T-Mobile and Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) is due any moment now. The two companies have reportedly agreed on most of the details: a total price of $32 billion for T-Mobile (about $40 a share), a $2 billion breakup fee, $45 billion in financing and the promotion of T-Mobile’s CEO John Legere to the top job at the merged company. But when? Not yet alas.

T-Mobile’s shares traded up about 2.5% in Thursday’s premarket, at $31.72 in a 52-week range of $22.95 to $35.50. The consensus target price for the shares was around $35.20 before this report.

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