Andre Yoskowitz
10 May 2012 21:55
T-Mobile USA has announced it has lost another 510,000 subscribers this quarter, failing to stop the bleeding of the past few years.
The loss was the 10th straight quarterly subscriber decline for the carrier, which is the fourth largest in the U.S. at 33 million customers.
Many blame T-Mobile's fate on the lack of Apple's popular iPhone device, as it remains the only major carrier to not carry it. The company is expected to launch an LTE network next year, and get the iPhone, but it may be too late by then.
Additionally, the carrier held off an all "strategic plans" during the end of 2011, as the company was sold to AT&T for $39 billion. However, the takeover was stopped by the FCC and Department of Justice, who sued to block the merger due to monopoly concerns. That break in moving forward has left the carrier struggling to keep up, say most analysts. Because of the broken merger, however, the company was given billions in break-up fees and spectrum, leaving the carrier with money and opportunity for the future.
More recently, there were reports that MetroPCS is in talks to buy the carrier, or there could be a strategic partnership or stock swap between them.