T-Mobile has become the largest prepaid wireless provider in the US

Just a week after T-Mobile announced strong second quarter results, exceeding Wall Street’s expectations, the company announced that it’s become the top prepaid wireless service provider in the US with 15.6 million customers. Sprint, which is now number two in prepaid, has a total of 15.2 million customers, while AT&T and Verizon have got 11.3 million and 6 million prepaid users, respectively. The number reported by T-Mobile includes customers from the company’s prepaid arm as well as from MetroPCS, which they acquired last year. T-Mobile said MetroPCS added 1.2 million customers since this time last year, which is effectively one customer every 27 seconds, and now has a total of over 10 million prepaid subscribers.

For years T-Mobile has been delegated to the last spot in the wireless carrier line-up. But, the company announced on Wednesday its revolution was underway — now that it has the most prepaid customers, it plans to overtake Sprint as No. 3 by the end of this year. “The momentum we’re seeing with our T-Mobile and MetroPCS brands is outstanding, and the fact that we’ve blown by everyone to take the No.1 spot in prepaid is icing on the cake,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a statement. “As a matter of fact, I’m going on record — I predict we’ll overtake Sprint in total customers by the end of this year. Not someday. Not next year. This year. Americans are voting with their feet, and they’re joining this Un-carrier revolution by the millions.” T-Mobile tooted its horn on Wednesday saying that the “most recent reported figures” show it has more prepaid customers than any of the other four top carriers in the US. The company said it has 15.65 million prepaid customers, while Sprint has 15.19 million, AT&T has 11.34 million, and Verizon has 6.04 million. These numbers only take into account prepaid customers and not people who are on yearly contract plans. Looking at subscribers overall, T-Mobile still comes in fourth place. However, the carrier exceeded Wall Street’s second-quarter expectations last week when it reported that its customer base surpassed the 50 million mark and its profit was up to $391, or 48 cents a share.