Grading the top 10 U.S. carriers in the first quarter of 2010

May 13, 2010 — 10:24am ET | By Mike Dano

Tools

The following charts the top 10 U.S. wireless carriers in the first quarter of 2010 by subscriber base, according to research firm Strategy Analytics, and includes major metrics--such as churn, ARPU and revenue--of each carrier. The subscriber figures include both retail and wholesale customers.

And click here for our analysis of the major trends among U.S. carriers in the first quarter.

Also, don't forget to see how these figures stack up against first quarter, second quarter, third quarter and fourth quarter 2009 figures. Finally, make sure to check this summary of the world's handset makers' performance in the first quarter and this look at first quarter earnings reports from the world's wireless players.

Top US Wireless Carrier Metrics Q1 2010 (ranking by subscribers, retail + wholesale)
	Carrier	Subscribers (millions)	Net Adds (millions)	Churn (Avg Monthly)	Service Revenue (US$ millions)	Data % of Service Revenue	ARPU
1	Verizon Wireless	92.801	1.548	1.40%	$13,845	33.3%	$50.15
2	AT&T	86.987	1.857	1.30%	$12,850	32.1%	$49.81
3	Sprint Nextel*	47.818	-0.082	3.03%	$6,432	35.3%	$48.14
4	T-Mobile USA	33.713	-0.077	3.10%	$4,578	24.1%	$45.22
5	MetroPCS	7.331	0.692	3.70%	$853	n/a	$39.83
6	US Cellular	6.147	0.006	1.91%	$965	20.9%	$52.42
7	Leap Wireless	5.400	0.446	4.5%	$585	n/a	$37.96
8	Clearwire	0.971	0.283	3.0%	$107	100.0%	$42.77
9	Cincinnati Bell	0.523	-0.010	3.3%	$69	24.4%	$43.42
10	Ntelos	0.445	0.007	3.1%	$96	21.1%	$51.25
11**	Cellular South**	n/a
Sprint Nextel subscribers and net adds excluding estimated number of affiliate subscribers, but including wholesale; service revenues excluding wholesale and affiliate *Cellular South is a private company and does not reveal its metrics, but is presumed to be in top 10 but have under 1 million subscribers Source: Strategy Analytics, based on carrier reports