For the big three players in the United States telecom sector, Q1 earnings are in the books. Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS), and AT&T (NYSE: T) are by far the most prominent players in this industry, and they compete fiercely. This competition manifests through two main verticals: wireless phone coverage and home internet.
Within the wireless segment, the key metric is net postpaid wireless subscriber additions or losses—a measure of how many recurring mobile phone customers a company gains or loses. Since mobile subscriptions are the core revenue driver for these firms and tend to have low churn, this figure provides a reliable indicator of performance. As such, net postpaid additions are widely considered the most important benchmark for evaluating wireless carriers.
