T-Mobile has announced today that it has overtaken Sprint to be the largest prepaid service provider in the U.S., with a total of 15.64 million prepaid subscribers on the network. That's dramatically past the other big rivals AT&T and Verizon also, who have 11.34 and 6.04 million prepaid customers, respectively — and T-Mobile shows no signs of slowing down.
While prepaid offerings are often pared-down and limited on other carriers, T-Mobile's pretty directly mirror its postpaid options, simply offering fewer extra "features" of the postpaid side like device financing and international roaming. Add in the wide availability of its prepaid SIM cards and phones in retailers and through its website, and you can see why so many people use T-Mobile prepaid.
Doubling up on its prepaid customer numbers, T-Mobile's recently-acquired prepaid brand MetroPCS has also surpassed the 10 million subscriber mark, adding 1.2 million customers in the last year — a rate of one customer every 27 seconds. T-Mobile CEO John Legere had this to say on the news:
"The good news just keeps on coming for T-Mobile. The momentum we're seeing with our T-Mobile and MetroPCS brands is outstanding, and the fact that we've blown by everyone to take the No.1 spot in prepaid is icing on the cake. As a matter of fact, I'm going on record—I predict we'll overtake Sprint in total customers by the end of this year. Not someday. Not next year. This year. Americans are voting with their feet, and they're joining this Un-carrier revolution by the millions."
Legere is known for his bold statements, but this doesn't seem all that lofty. At the rate T-Mobile is moving, there's indeed a good chance it passes Sprint in terms of total subscribers as it continues to leave the others in the dust in terms of prepaid subs as well.
Source: T-Mobile (opens in new tab)
