T-Mobile US CEO Mike Sievert (pictured) used the company’s Q3 earnings call to provide an update on its various M&A and joint venture activities, including a $4.4 billion deal to buy spectrum, network assets and customers from UScellular.

Sievert still expects the deal to close by mid-2025 and said T-Mobile is in a planning phase with UScellular counterparts.

“We’ve met the teams. They’re fired up.”

The CEO noted T-Mobile and UScellular customers will have a better network experience once the integration work is completed.

UScellular customers will also benefit from lower prices as they migrate to T-Mobile tariffs, he said.

“We’re very confident, but we have to keep our heads down and go through the process and explain our case to all the parties involved.”

Mark Nelson, EVP and general counsel, said T-Mobile’s joint ventures with FTTH companies Lumos Networks and Metronet have cleared the US Department of Justice’s processes and are awaiting sign-off from the Federal Communications Commission.

Mike Katz, president of marketing, strategy and products, said T-Mobile expects both transactions to complete in 2025, with Lumos early in the year.

“I would say all of them are in the process and the processes are going really well,” Katz added.

Q3 numbers
Sievert noted post-paid phone customer additions of 865,000 were T-Mobile’s highest in a third quarter for a decade and were up by 15,000 year-on-year.

The figure topped AT&T and Verizon.

Post-paid phone churn of 0.86 per cent was a record low for the quarter and down from 0.87 per cent.

The operator added 415,000 fixed wireless customers to reach 6 million three years after it launched.

“We’re now halfway to our long-term target of 12 million customers by 2028,” Sievert said.

Service revenue of $16.7 billion grew 5 per cent and the post-paid figure rose 8 per cent to $13.3 billion.

Revenue was $20.1 billion compared with $19.7 billion. Net income increased 42.8 per cent to $3 billion.