T-Mobile US said its revenue rose 8.2 percent to $10.84 billion in Q3 2018 from $10.02 billion in Q3 2017.
Its net income rose 45 percent to $795 million, or 93 cents a share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $550 million, or 63 cents a share, a year earlier.
The company said net income was impacted during the quarter by $53 million in costs related to the pending Sprint merger.
The Bellevue, Washington-based company added 774,000 phone subscribers, who pay a monthly bill, during the third quarter, up from 595,000 net new subscribers it added in the same quarter last year.
The growth was helped by new wireless plans aimed at certain users, such as those over 55 and people in the military, which helped T-Mobile gain new customer segments.
T-Mobile said it led the US wireless industry growing nearly 75 percent faster than the expected aggregate post-paid phone additions of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Comcast, and Charter combined and more than 2.6 times the net additions of Verizon.
Post-paid ARPU of T-Mobile was $46.17 in Q3 2018, down 0.8 percent from Q2 2018 and 1.6 percent from Q3 2017. Pre-paid ARPU of T-Mobile was $38.34 in Q3 2018, down 1.5 percent from Q3 2017.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere said: “Our customer growth accelerated again, benefiting from the investments we are making in network and in customer experience, leading to 22 quarters in a row with more than 1 million net customer additions.”
Last week, the largest U.S. carrier Verizon said it added 295,000 phone subscribers during the third quarter of 2018. AT&T, the second largest telecom operator, gained 69,000 phone customers.
T-Mobile said it expects to add 3.8 million to 4.1 million new post-paid customers for the full year, up from its previous expectations of between 3 million to 3.6 million.
The third-largest U.S. wireless carrier by subscribers is awaiting regulatory approval for its deal to buy smaller rival Sprint as it strives for more scale to compete with Verizon and AT&T.
The company expects to close the merger in the first half of next year and has so far received approval from half of the state commissions that are reviewing the deal, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said on a conference call with analysts.
5G update
T-Mobile said it is building 5G network in six of the top 10 markets, including New York and Los Angeles, and hundreds of cities across the U.S. in 2018. This network will be ready for the introduction of the first 5G smartphones in 2019. T-Mobile will deliver nationwide 5G network in 2020.
