T-Mobile US’ decision not to raise prices in line with rivals AT&T and Verizon paid off as it racked up net post-paid phone subscriber additions of 854,000 in Q3, its highest since a merger with Sprint in 2020.

On T-Mobile’s earnings call, CEO Mike Sievert (pictured) also highlighted industry-leading net post-paid account additions of 394,000, the highest in the operator’s history.

“We delivered an industry-best 1.6 million post-paid net additions, more than AT&T and Verizon combined,” he stated, noting post-paid phone churn of 0.88 per cent “improved eight basis points” year-on-year.

Sievert also highlighted progress in work to decommission 35,000 Sprint sites, the bulk of which was achieved during Q3, a year ahead of schedule.

Wireless service revenue rose 4.3 per cent to $15.4 billion with the post-paid figure up 7 per cent.

T-Mobile raised its annual forecast for post-paid wireless subscriber additions for the third time in 2022, to between 6.2 million and 6.4 million compared with the 6 million to 6.3 million previously expected.

It added 578,000 broadband subscribers, primarily through fixed wireless access (FWA), for a total of 2.1 million.

Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner told Mobile World Live rivals’ price rises “increased T-Mobile’s value differentiation”.

“Churn was very good. The FWA net adds were good, but I expected them to be even stronger”.

Net income fell 25.5 per cent to $508 million with overall revenue down from $19.6 billion in Q3 2021 to $19.4 billion.