T-Mobile Q4 Earnings Results: 1.6 Million Subscribers, but $20 Million Loss

T-Mobile released its 2013 Q4 earnings today, and they’re a bit mixed. Although the “UnCarrier” managed to add 1.6 million wireless subscribers, it posted a $20 million loss on earnings of $6.83 billion. That’s a 40 percent year-over-year increase in revenue, but a tad short of what investors expected ($6.95 billion).

The loss was mostly attributable to the T-Mobile’s marketing and many “UnCarrier” moves. It’s hard to believe the company introduced its contract-free plans, Jump! upgrade program, international data plan, and Early Termination Fee (ETA) reimbursal deal all in one year, but with a CEO as passionate and aggressive as John Legere, perhaps rapid-fire changes shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Despite the loss, T-Mobile managed to add an impressive 4.4 million subscribers by the end of fiscal 2013. That’s a record for the carrier, and a figure John Legere was clearly excited about. He said in a prepared statement, “Our performance in the fourth quarter and the full year is clearly proving that we have our strategy right and that we are executing it well. Customers are fed up with the old ways and are voting in favor of choice, innovation and doing business with a company that cares about them and is willing to earn their business.”

Here’s the press release:

T-Mobile US Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2013 Results and Third Consecutive Quarter of Over One Million Net Customer Additions

Fourth Quarter 2013 Highlights: Total net customer additions of more than 1.6 million 981,000 total branded net customer additions with 869,000 branded postpaid net additions, representing the best branded postpaid performance since the fourth quarter of 2005 Improving branded postpaid phone net additions of 800,000 and 69,000 mobile broadband net additions Accelerating branded prepaid customer growth with 112,000 net customer additions Continued low branded postpaid churn of 1.7%, flat quarter-over-quarter and down 80 basis points year-over-year, resulting in the best quarter of year-over-year churn reduction in 2013 Delivered third consecutive quarter of sequential service revenue growth Strong Adjusted EBITDA of $1.239 billion and Adjusted EBITDA margin of 24% combined with significant customer growth Successful modernization program delivers nationwide 4G LTE network coverage to 209 million people in 273 metro areas Full Year 2013 Highlights: Total net customer additions of more than 4.4 million on a pro forma combined basis 2.4 million total branded net customer additions including 2 million branded postpaid and 359,000 branded prepaid customers on a pro forma combined basis Branded postpaid churn of 1.7%, down 70 basis points year-over-year Adjusted EBITDA of $5.317 billion and Adjusted EBITDA margin of 26% on a pro forma combined basis Successful introduction and execution of major Un-carrier initiatives Rapid progress with the integration of MetroPCS by expanding the brand into 30 additional markets Currently 3.5 million MetroPCS customers on the T-Mobile network Met or exceeded all company guidance targets for 2013

Full earnings report.