Why AT&T Is Gaining Prepaid Customers

Now let’s take a look at AT&T’s (T) prepaid customer net addition trend over the past few quarters. The telecom company’s prepaid subscribers rose ~11.6% year-over-year (or YoY) to reach 16.9 million by the end of September 30. AT&T added a total of 570,000 net prepaid customers in the third quarter, with strength coming from the Cricket brand. Meanwhile, the company had gained 324,000 net prepaid customers in the third quarter of 2017. AT&T’s prepaid subscriber growth was relatively high among the top US wireless service providers.

By the end of September 30, Verizon’s (VZ) prepaid customers fell ~15.2% YoY to reach 4.7 million. Meanwhile, T-Mobile’s (TMUS) prepaid customers increased ~2.4% YoY to 21.0 million, whereas Sprint’s (S) prepaid customers rose ~2.9% YoY to reach 9.0 million by the end of the period.

T-Mobile gained 35,000 net prepaid customers in the third quarter Verizon and Sprint lost 96,000 and 14,000, respectively.