📢 Earnings Summary — TMUS

T-Mobile delivered a standout Q3 with record postpaid growth, industry-low phone churn, and strong financial outperformance. Management raised full-year guidance for subscriber adds, ARPA, EBITDA, and free cash flow, even after incorporating UScellular and fiber acquisitions. Momentum is anchored in widening network leadership, accelerating digital adoption, and a scalable 5G Home Internet model. Integration of UScellular and fiber assets is underway with increased and accelerated synergy targets, albeit with near-term integration and decommissioning costs. The company sees broad-based market share gains and plans to increase multi-year guidance on the year-end call, signaling confidence in sustained, profitable growth.

📈 Growth Highlights

• Best-ever postpaid account growth and best-ever total postpaid net additions; over 1 million postpaid phone net adds (best Q3 in 10+ years).
• Led industry in postpaid phone churn and postpaid phone net adds.
• Postpaid service revenue +12% YoY; total service revenue +9% YoY; core adjusted EBITDA +6% YoY.
• Service revenue-to-free cash flow conversion at 26%.
• Postpaid ARPA +3.8% organically (ex-UScellular, Metronet, Lumos).
• 5G Home Internet net adds >500k; fiber net adds >50k (incl. Metronet contribution).

🔨 Business Development

• Closed Metronet transaction on July 24; integrating fiber operations alongside Lumos JV under T-Fiber brand.
• Welcomed UScellular customers; leveraging Sprint integration playbook; immediate benefits include improved network experience and T-Mobile Tuesdays.
• Increased UScellular synergy target to $1.2B OpEx+CapEx run-rate within 2 years of close.
• Leadership updates: Srini Gopalan elevated to incoming CEO; Mike Sievert transitioning to Vice Chairman; John Saw named President of Technology; André Almeida joins senior team.

💵 Financial Performance

• Raised FY total postpaid net adds guidance to 7.2–7.4M (up >1M at midpoint); postpaid phone net adds guidance to 3.3M.
• Raised FY postpaid ARPA growth to at least +3.5% including UScellular/Metronet/Lumos dilution; underlying ARPA growth ~+4% excluding them.
• Raised FY core adjusted EBITDA guidance to $33.7–$33.9B (up $300M at midpoint).
• FY cash CapEx now ~$10B (up $500M due entirely to UScellular).
• FY adjusted free cash flow guidance to $17.8–$18.0B (higher by $200M at lower end), includes merger-related payments.
• Q4 outlook: D&A ~$3.7B; interest expense ~$1.0B.

🏦 Capital & Funding

• Expect ~$300M Q4 costs to achieve UScellular synergies (excluded from core adjusted EBITDA).
• Expect ~$160M Q4 cell site decommissioning expenses tied to network transformation (excluded from core adjusted EBITDA).
• Incorporated M&A and related financing into guidance; focusing incremental CapEx on UScellular integration and network optimization.

🧠 Operations & Strategy

• Doubling down on network leadership and digital transformation to widen differentiation and sustain growth.
• Building/upgrading thousands of cell sites, with emphasis on smaller markets and rural areas; deploying nationwide 5G Advanced.
• Customer-driven coverage model and cell site location optimization to enhance experience and value.
• Digital momentum: ~75% of iPhone preorder upgrades were fully digital; T-Life app >85M installs.
• 5G Home Internet strategy leverages fallow capacity; customers doubled over 2 years with 30% higher per-customer data usage (~580 GB/month) while average download speeds rose ~50%.
• Ookla: median download speeds on new iPhone ~90% faster vs one benchmark competitor and >40% faster vs the other.

🌍 Market Outlook

• Broad-based growth across Top 100, smaller markets, and rural areas; market share gains where TMUS is #1, #2, and #3.
• Network perception among switchers at an all-time high; device cycle and contract normalization increasing switching activity.
• Management plans to raise 2026–2027 guidance on year-end call, reflecting stronger core trends and M&A benefits.
• Continued focus on wireless, 5G broadband, fiber expansion (T-Fiber), and digital to drive durable, profitable growth.

⚠ Risks & Headwinds

• Integration and execution risk for UScellular, Metronet, and Lumos, including synergy capture and network transformation.
• ARPA dilution from acquired assets during integration phase.
• Incremental near-term expenses (merger-related and site decommissioning) as network is optimized.
• Competitive responses from incumbents as switching activity rises; lingering network perception inertia in some locales.

AI-generated earnings recap sourced from company results & conference call observations. Not investment advice — verify with official filings.