T-Mobile US set its sights on stealing share from rivals AT&T and Verizon in the enterprise market, as profit tumbled in Q2 primarily due to costs related the completion of its merger with Sprint in April.

During an earnings call, CEO Mike Sievert noted the operator’s business division “led the way” on post-paid net additions in Q2, as Covid-19 (coronavirus) created opportunities to serve businesses, public sector clients and schools.

He added T-Mobile aims to capitalise as cash-strapped enterprise customers shop around for the best deals and more companies feel obligated to take responsibility for remote workers’ connectivity needs.

Sievert said enterprise had “always been a castle of AT&T’s and Verizon’s, but it’s ours to take and we’re scaling the walls”.

Net additions of 1.2 million comprised 1.1 million post-paid and took its total subscriber base to 98.3 million, which the operator stated surpassed AT&T’s 92.9 million to make it the nation’s second-largest operator by users.

The combined T-Mobile and Sprint’s profit came in well below the $939 million the operator posted on its own in Q2 2019, at $110 million, attributed to merger- and pandemic-related costs. Revenue of $17.7 billion was up from $10.9 billion.