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MetroPCS subscriber losses; 2.2million on LTE

Gman9831

I'm no Senior
Aug 4, 2011
2,991
992
Metro ended the year with half a million less people as last year. There are now 2.2 million people on 4GLTE

Source http://www.fiercewireless.com/press...leases-fourth-quarter-2012-subscriber-results

MetroPCS' Q4 subscriber losses surprise analysts - FierceWireless

MetroPCS reported that it lost around 93,000 subscribers during the 4Q, bringing its total subscriber loses for 2012 to around 460k. The prepaid carrier's 4Q declines were far greater than analysts had expected & the news sent MetroPCS' shares down around 2% to $9.50 a share.

"Today's pre-announced Q4 2012 subscriber results are well below our expectation of a gain of 63k & consensus expectations of 50k adds," said Craig Moffett, analyst at Bernstein Research, according to Investor's Business Daily. "The results from MetroPCS suggest that prepaid [growth] may be rapidly deteriorating & competitive intensity is rising."

The results are particularly worrying for MetroPCS, which is hoping to close a merger with Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA. The companies expect the transaction to close sometime this year. However, Moffett noted that MetroPCS' subscriber loses likely won't affect DT's plans since T-Mobile USA is in need of the spectrum that MetroPCS owns in the U.S. market.
Nonetheless, some analysts said MetroPCS' 4Q results highlight the carrier's precarious position in the hotly competitive U.S. wireless market.

"This is the first time [Metro] PCS has lost subscribers on a net basis in Q4, which is typically its second strongest quarter behind Q1, and marks the company's third consecutive quarter of net subscriber losses," noted UBS analyst John Hodulik, according to Investor's Business Daily. "We believe this underscores the urgency with which the company pursued merger partners before reaching a deal with T-Mobile in October."

In the 4Q, MetroPCS*reported gross additions of 866k subscribers, a 29% decrease over the 4Q of 2011. The company ended the 4Q of 2012 with around 8.9 million subscribers, notably down from the 9.3 million customers MetroPCS ended with in 2011.

However, the carrier did show some bright spots. MetroPCS reported 2.2 million 4GLTE subscribers at the end of 4Q, which it said was an increase of 117% from the third quarter of 2012 & MetroPCS' churn shrank to 3.6% in the period, down slightly from the 3.7% it reported in the 4Q of 2011 & 3Q of 2012.
MetroPCS' 4Q results are preliminary; the carrier is scheduled to post full fourth-quarter results Feb 18.

Under MetroPCS' proposed deal with T-Mobile, which still requires regulatory approval, Deutsche Telekom will hold 74 percent of the merged business and will pay MetroPCS shareholders $1.5 billion in cash. The transaction will combine T-Mobile's spectrum with MetroPCS' spectrum, and it will allow T-Mobile to offer a broader and deeper LTE network. A combined T-Mobile & MetroPCS will still sit behind Sprint as the No 4 carrier by subscribers.
 
Metro, here is ONE way to at least stem Some of your subscriber losses AND get more New subscribers. [1]

GET RID OF YOUR LOSER, POS, OVERSEAS, NO COMPREDE' ENGLEESH NO-CUSTOMER SERVICE PEOPLE.

You HAVE in U.S. customer support with TMobile. USE IT! and transfer Your customer service to them. Your Customer Service people are THE MOST VISIBLE, MOST CONTACTED REPRESENTATIVES OF YOUR COMPANY.

A brick could better represent you then they do.

EVERY SINGLE PENNY YOU SPEND ON THESE OUTSOURCED PEOPLE IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF YOUR BUSINESS RESOURCES.

STOP IT. NOW.

[1] Your no-customer service people were Almost a reason for me NOT to become a Metro customer. The ONLY reason I was less concerned was digging around and finding out you could do Most of Anything the customer service people can do Some Other Way than having to TRY and communicate with them.

Bruce in Ocala, FL
 
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alot of people talking about that in 2015 no metro phone will work anymore....... i will have to disagree perhaps the old cdma/1x phone wont but i dont see my gs3 being retired no time soon. i mean think about it we were told VOLTE would be released soon and if so that would make our uicc phones more dependant on it's 4g for calls txt and data. so if anything i believe we are ready for this change soon. well most of us dunno about the blackberry users or the 3g android users.
 
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Well -many of those customer losses were BEFORE the Samsung Galaxy S3 .

The Motion has also been a bit undermarketed.

If I was in Metro Marketing Dept.

I would VERY QUICKLY:

1) Get the Note 2 and another top tier phone.

2) Reassure everyone we are going to be here at same rates and even better speed ,coverage, bandwidth.

3) Your device will absolutely NOT become obsolete on our Network and we will give you at least

one year.warning if upgrades become necessary and possibly subsidize upgrades when necessary.
 
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^^ Agree with everything except your #1. On wirefly it has an unlocked Note2 for $900 don't think I need to go into more detail on why that's a no go for budget carrier metro. I think everyone can wait another 3 months when the merger is completed then we'll have BYOD. They don't need to spend all that money just to develop a phone for metro, because they would have to add AWS comparability to ours. Then they have to subsidize that from the $900 price point. Like I said just wait the 3 months then tmobile can just add they're version to our lineup or you can bring your own.
 
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the subscriber losses were likely due to the lack of smartphone selections. Last year I was seriously considering switching to T-Mobile because all of MetroPCS phones sucked, including its top-of-the-line LG Esteem, (which I used.) I was extremely unhappy with the phone and really really hated Android - because of how sluggish and slow LG Esteem was, even after being rooted and enhanced. I had already started researching other companies and phones in Summer 2012, and was getting ready to switch.

Thank goodness MetroPCS finally released Samsung Galaxy S3. Now I'm finally starting to appreciate Android without a slow phone spoiling the whole experience.

Phone selections have become a major consideration in picking a service provider in the smartphone age. MetroPCS had an awfully limited and lousy lineup of smartphones last year, which would turn off many customers who wanted better, faster and fancier phones.
 
Upvote 0
Well -many of those customer losses were BEFORE the Samsung Galaxy S3 .

The Motion has also been a bit undermarketed.

If I was in Metro Marketing Dept.

I would VERY QUICKLY:

1) Get the Note 2 and another top tier phone.

2) Reassure everyone we are going to be here at same rates and even better speed ,coverage, bandwidth.

3) Your device will absolutely NOT become obsolete on our Network and we will give you at least

one year.warning if upgrades become necessary and possibly subsidize upgrades when necessary.

..... Oh me oh my. be ready for the motion. The new promo has already started! . Yay. 12:05 am and the phone is now $50 after the $50 mail in rebate
 
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Also, Metro needs to release updates for their phones. LG Esteem had never received the ICS update as initially promised/suggested. It does not matter to me because I change my phone every year, but updates are always good and make customers happy. If I had gotten the ICS update to my LG Esteem, I might have delayed my intention to drop MetroPCS and switch to another carrier.
 
Upvote 0
the subscriber losses were likely due to the lack of smartphone selections. Last year I was seriously considering switching to T-Mobile because all of MetroPCS phones sucked, including its top-of-the-line LG Esteem, (which I used.) I was extremely unhappy with the phone and really really hated Android - because of how sluggish and slow LG Esteem was, even after being rooted and enhanced. I had already started researching other companies and phones in Summer 2012, and was getting ready to switch.

Thank goodness MetroPCS finally released Samsung Galaxy S3. Now I'm finally starting to appreciate Android without a slow phone spoiling the whole experience.

Phone selections have become a major consideration in picking a service provider in the smartphone age. MetroPCS had an awfully limited and lousy lineup of smartphones last year, which would turn off many customers who wanted better, faster and fancier phones.
So true I switched to Virgin Mobile just to get the Evo v now that Metro is coming out with phones such as the s3 I might come back quite soon if virgin doesn't come up with something just as good or even better. The s3 was the best thing that Metro could have ever done
 
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Metro, here is ONE way to at least stem Some of your subscriber losses AND get more New subscribers. [1]

GET RID OF YOUR LOSER, POS, OVERSEAS, NO COMPREDE' ENGLEESH NO-CUSTOMER SERVICE PEOPLE.

You HAVE in U.S. customer support with TMobile. USE IT! and transfer Your customer service to them. Your Customer Service people are THE MOST VISIBLE, MOST CONTACTED REPRESENTATIVES OF YOUR COMPANY.

A brick could better represent you then they do.

EVERY SINGLE PENNY YOU SPEND ON THESE OUTSOURCED PEOPLE IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF YOUR BUSINESS RESOURCES.

STOP IT. NOW.

[1] Your no-customer service people were Almost a reason for me NOT to become a Metro customer. The ONLY reason I was less concerned was digging around and finding out you could do Most of Anything the customer service people can do Some Other Way than having to TRY and communicate with them.

Bruce in Ocala, FL
or perhaps not announce a merger with T-Mobile but whatever floats your boat...
 
Upvote 0

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