A Surge in Wireless Subscribers Makes Analysts Wonder

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Cellphone carriers have reported adding millions of new US wireless plans over the past year, making for the industry’s biggest gains in nearly a decade. Recent increases at T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon aren’t fully explained by population growth, second cellphones used for work, or parents handing ever-younger children their first devices. New Street Research estimates that the US market should have added about four million to six million cellphone users over the past year based on recent population and market trends. Companies instead logged a net gain of eight million phone lines. Some analysts point to free extra phone lines—a bonus T-Mobile salespeople have sometimes offered—as another cause of the upswing, yet many doubt the sustainability of new phone lines in a country where phone numbers outnumber people. In 2017, Sprint admitted to regulators it had overcounted the number of its subscribers using the Lifeline program, a federal telecom subsidy program for low-income users. Sprint later told regulators that promotional offers for free lines, among other things, were driving most of its core customer growth.


A Surge in Wireless Subscribers Makes Analysts Wonder