T-Mobile added a total of 7.1million customers globally during 2003, the operator said, with almost half of that number being accounted for by T-Mobile USA. There was also a strong contribution to customer numbers from UK MVNO Virgin Mobile with whom the operator has finally settled outstanding legal action.
The operator added roughly the same number of customers as in 2002, giving it an overall total of 61 million customers,
In Europe, the operator’s home market proved as important as ever, with 705,000 additions (441,000 contract) in the fourth quarter taking total numbers up to 26.3 million, an increase of 1.7 million customers over the year.
In the UK it was slightly different story. Although the operator reported an overall increase of 1.2 million customers in 2003, an increase of 9.7% on the 2002 figure, much of this was accounted for by MVNO Virgin Mobile, which balanced the effect of T-Mobile’s “extensive streamlining” of its direct UK customer base in 2003.
Virgin added 1.26 million customers itself during 2003, with 506,448 of them joining in the final, Christmas, quarter. Virgin Mobile had 3,644,795 customers at the end of 2003. T-Mobile UK had 13.6 million in total, including the Virgin numbers.
In the Netherlands there was a 13.2% increase in subscribers to just over two million customers, whilst in the Czech republic 400,000 people joined the operator, taking the total to just under four million. T-Mobile Austria showed flat numbers at around two million.
It was in the USA where most headway was made. Despite the high level of churn, T-Mobile USA increased customers by 51.5% compared with the previous quarter to 1.02 million customers. Throughout all of 2003, the number of customers increased by over 3.2 million to over 13.1 million.