AT&T and Verizon hold commanding leads over the rest of the wireless industry but it's actually the back half of the pack that's been most interesting as of late. Of course I'm talking about Sprint and T-Mobile, or as T-Mobile CEO John Legere now sees it, T-Mobile and Sprint.
The outspoken chief of team magenta claimed in a recent earnings call that his company has now passed rival Sprint in terms of total subscribers.
According to his math, Sprint had 55 million customers going into 2013. Heading into 2014, they still had 55 million customers and now heading into this year, that figure is still the same. T-Mobile, meanwhile, went from 33 million customers to 55 million customers now.
At best, the two carriers are tied for third place based on those numbers. But Legere had another trick up his sleeve, pointing out that 1.7 million customers on Sprint's roster are "dead" meaning they have no usage or generate no revenue. By the next quarter, Legere said, it'll be clear that T-Mobile has overtaken Sprint.
The news comes alongside T-Mobile's fourth quarter earnings report which certainly looked promising for a company that has struggled as they have.
Revenues for the quarter were $8.15 billion, up from the $7.89 billion that Wall Street forecasted. The company also posted a profit of $101 million, or $0.12 a share. During the same period last year, T-Mo lost $20 million. During the quarter, T-Mobile added 2.1 million customers.