--- description: The fourth-place carrier added 1.3 million monthly customers in the first quarter of 2014, according to its quarterly earnings report. title: T-Mobile First Quarter Earnings image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [wireless carriers](/tag/wireless-carriers/) ## wireless carriers Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # T-Mobile's Plan to Blow Up the Wireless Industry Is Starting to Work by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 1, 2014 4:31 PM CUT by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 1, 2014 4:31 PM CUT T-Mobile’s crazy plan to upend the cell phone carrier model is starting to pay off. The fourth-place carrier added 1.3 million monthly customers in the first quarter of 2014, according to its quarterly earnings report. That was more than AT&T and Verizon combined (Sprint lost subscribers during the quarter). The T-Mobile turnaround is thanks to its “Un-carrier” initiative, which has seen the company eliminate long-held traditions of the wireless industry, such as two-year contracts, high international data fees and automatic overage charges. T-Mobile has even gone so far as to pay customers up to $650 in cash and store credit to jump ship from a competing carrier. Together, these moves are helping the company grow its customer base. “A year ago I promised that we would bring change to what I called this arrogant U.S. wireless industry,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in an earnings statement. “We are delivering on that promise and our results reflect the growing customer revolution that we’ve ignited.” Though the “Un-carrier” model is boosting users, it’s not helping profits. The company posted a loss of $151 million for the quarter, down from $107 million profit in the first quarter of 2013\. That translates to a loss of 19 cents per share, much worse than analysts’ estimates of a 10-cents-per-share loss. Revenues for the quarter were $6.88 billion, slightly off from estimates of $6.92 billion. Underwhelming financials haven’t hurt T-Mobile’s stock, though, which jumped nearly 9% in early morning trading following the earnings release. The company’s shares have nearly doubled in value in the past year. For now, subscriber growth is all T-Mobile needs to please Wall Street, and the company is bullish on its ability to recruit new customers going forward. T-Mobile boosted the high-end of its guidance on projected monthly customer additions for the year from 3 million to 3.3 million. Of course, T-Mobile’s radical new model might itself be disrupted if Sprint successfully buys the company out. The nation’s third-largest telco [is reportedly talking to banks](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-30/sprint-said-to-plan-t-mobile-bid-after-pushing-banks-for-funding.html "undefined") in preparation for a takeover bid. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/84468/t-mobile-uncarrier-first-quarter-earnings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/84468/t-mobile-uncarrier-first-quarter-earnings/"},"headline":"T-Mobile's Plan to Blow Up the Wireless Industry Is Starting to Work","datePublished":"2014-05-01T16:31:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:08.119Z","description":"The fourth-place carrier added 1.3 million monthly customers in the first quarter of 2014, according to its quarterly earnings report.","url":"https://time.com/84468/t-mobile-uncarrier-first-quarter-earnings/","keywords":["wireless carriers","Tech","T-Mobile","Companies","cell phone"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Victor Luckerson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/wireless-carriers/","name":"wireless carriers"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/84468/t-mobile-uncarrier-first-quarter-earnings/","name":"T-Mobile's Plan to Blow Up the Wireless Industry Is Starting to Work"}}]}] ```