T-Mobile adds more phone subscribers than expected in fourth quarter

(Reuters) - T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ: TMUS) on Wednesday beat Wall Street estimates for net new phone subscribers who pay a monthly bill, adding 1 million customers in the fourth quarter.

The third largest U.S. mobile carrier was expected to add 857,900 new phone subscribers, according to research firm FactSet.

Last month, T-Mobile won backing from two national security reviews for its deal to buy smaller rival Sprint Corp (NYSE: S) as it strives for more scale to compete with Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T Inc (NYSE: T).

The report on subscriber numbers comes a day after Verizon beat Wall Street estimates for net new phone subscribers who pay a monthly bill, adding 650,000 customers in the fourth quarter.

T-Mobile's postpaid phone churn, or the percentage of subscribers who leave a service provider, was 0.99 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 1.02 percent in the quarter ended Sept. 30.

For the third quarter, T-Mobile exceeded analysts' estimates for net new phone subscribers and profit, driven by its competitive wireless plans and trade-in offers for iPhones aimed at fending off its bigger rivals.

The company's shares were up nearly 1 percent at $68.32 in morning trading.

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel and Shounak Dasgupta)

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