How Have Postpaid Subscriber Bases Of The Big Four U.S. Carriers Trended Over The Last 5 Years?

Postpaid phone subscribers represent the most valuable type of customers for wireless carriers, on account of their higher ARPUs and lower churn rates compared to prepaid subscribers. Below, we take a look at how the postpaid subscriber bases of the big four U.S. carriers have trended over the last five years.

• Verizon led the industry in terms of postpaid subscriber gains, adding roughly 19 million subscribers between 2011 and 2015. Much of the increase was driven by its superior network quality, robust 4G roll-out  and the availability of the iPhone on its network beginning from 2011, after Apple’s exclusivity agreement with AT&T ended.
• AT&T’s postpaid subscriber base (including data-centric devices) grew by roughly 11% over the last 4 years, amid strong smartphone adoption. However, the carrier’s phone-only subscriber base saw a dip in 2015, due to significant feature phone attrition.
• Sprint saw its subscriber base shrink by about 6% over the period, on account of a botched network upgrade and also due to aggressive marketing and promotional activity from key rival T-Mobile.
• T-Mobile saw the strongest postpaid growth in percentage terms (33%), owing to its clever branding, aggressive promotions and its “un-carrier” strategy, which did away with the two-year contracts that were the norm in the wireless industry.

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