T-Mobile Revenue Up 10.6% in Q1 as CEO Dances Around Deutsche Telekom Merger Reports

T-Mobile reported first-quarter revenue of $23.1 billion, up 10.6 percent year over year, but attention during the earnings call focused on reports that the carrier could merge with its parent company, Deutsche Telekom. CEO Srini Gopalan declined to comment directly on the speculation, but noted that hypothetically, any such transaction would require approval Net income for the quarter decreased 15 percent year over year to $2.5 billion, which included the impact of the company's UScellular acquisition. T-Mobile added 217,000 post-paid net account additions for broadband and mobile services, up five percent year over year, and average monthly post-paid service revenue per account rose 3.9 percent to $151.93. Because of the better-than-expected performance, T-Mobile raised its forecast for post-paid account additions to between 950,000 and one million this year, up from a prior range of 900,000 to one million. The carrier also announced two new fiber joint ventures totaling $2.7 billion in investment, including a 50/50 partnership with Oak Hill Capital to acquire GoNetspeed and Greenlight Networks, and a separate 50/50 joint venture with Wren House to acquire i3 Broadband. T-Mobile aims to reach 12 to 15 million households with fiber Separately, T-Mobile unveiled SuperBroadband in partnership with Starlink, combining the carrier's 5G Standalone network with Starlink satellite broadband for business customers. SuperBroadband plans start from $250 a month and include a 99.99 percent uptime guarantee. Gopalan noted that usage of the direct-to-device satellite service has been lower than expected, in part because of the strength of T-Mobile's existing network.