T-Mobile reports third-quarter earnings

T-Mobile's third-quarter profits slipped as higher costs and a lull in new customer additions following a headline-grabbing hack sapped its bottom line. The company said it added 673,000 phone subscribers in the closely watched market for postpaid wireless service during Q3 2021. The tally lagged behind AT&T, which reported a net gain of 928,000 such subscribers over the same span. T-Mobile finance chief Peter Osvaldik said that the company performed against the challenge of shifting millions of Sprint customers over to a new network and billing system, a time of confusion that offered AT&T and Verizon more opportunities to poach subscribers. Beyond mobile users, T-Mobile said that it added 586,000 other postpaid customers, including a "record-high" number of home internet users. The carrier launched a home internet product earlier in 2021 that utilizes its 4G and 5G networks to offer home broadband access in place of a traditional cable provider. The company also says that its low-band 5G network (marketed as "Extended Range") now covers 308 million people, while its faster midband network (which it calls "Ultra Capacity") has expanded to 190 million people. It touts that the average download speeds on its midband network are now at 400Mbps. T-Mobile’s overall third-quarter profit fell to $691 million compared with a year-earlier result of $1.25 billion. Overall revenue rose 1.8 percent to $19.62 billion.