Nothing special: T-Mobile lost 77,000 US subscribers, revenue down in Q1

T-Mobile lost 77,000 subscribers in the US in the first quarter of 2010, mainly due to stiff competition and no clear plans for a 4G network.

Quarterly net income was $362 million on revenue of $5.28 billion which was down from $5.41 billion in the fourth quarter and $5.40 billion in the first quarter of 2009.

Compare this to gains of 415,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2009 and 371,000 more subscribers in the fourth quarter of last year, and T-Mobile obviously is having some recent problems keeping and attracting customers. Of course, between the continued media blitz by AT&T and Verizon and their coverage maps, and Sprint’s continued rollout of its 4G network added to the continued exclusivity of the iPhone on AT&T, T-Mobile does not have a very high profile right now.

Perhaps the carrier had hoped that it’s partnership with Google for the Nexus One would raise it’s profile, but that simply hasn’t happened, as right now Android phones are about a dime a dozen (and according to this report are outselling the iPhone for the first time).

Of T-Mobile’s 33.7 million subscribers at the end of the quarter,5.2 million were smartphone users (a 33% increase over 4Q 2009) and expects to have 8 million smartphone users by the end of the year. This of course should be expected as smartphone usage continues to skyrocket worldwide.

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Some good news for T-Mobile subscribers is that the carrier expects to have HSPA+ deployed in about 100 metropolitan areas which should cover about 185 million people in the US by the end of the year.

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