T-Mobile Overtakes AT&T to Become No. 2 Carrier

T-Mobile said it has vaulted ahead of rival AT&T in the race for wireless customers to become the country’s second-largest cellphone carrier. T-Mobile ended June with 98.3 million US customers, excluding wholesale subscribers on other brands that use its network. AT&T reported 92.9 million prepaid and postpaid customers, a tally that didn’t count wholesale accounts or connected devices such as Wi-Fi hotspots and car sensors. T-Mobile included non-phone gadgets like wireless hotspots in its reported customer base. T-Mobile’s second-quarter results showed it also weathered the coronavirus pandemic better than its competitors, adding 253,000 postpaid phone customers during the period. Investors place a higher value on postpaid customers—who are billed for service after it is rendered—than on prepaid plans subject to more customer switches. Overall, T-Mobile reported a second-quarter profit of $110 million, down from $939 million a year earlier before it had acquired Sprint. The result included $798 million of pretax merger costs. Revenue jumped to $17.7 billion, up 61% from about $11 billion a year earlier, when T-Mobile was a stand-alone carrier.