Oct 28 (Reuters) - T-Mobile raised the lower end of its annual adjusted free cash flow forecast on Wednesday, after strong customer growth helped the wireless carrier beat quarterly revenue estimates.
The company gained 274,000 postpaid net accounts in the third quarter, higher than the 251,917 additions expected by analysts polled by Visible Alpha.
• T-Mobile is looking to increase revenue from its existing customer base by moving subscribers to higher-priced plans, while rolling out more flexible offerings as competition among US wireless carriers intensifies
• More than 60% of postpaid lines among new accounts were opting for the company's top-tier plans, T-Mobile CFO Peter Osvaldik told Reuters
• It also plans to broadly launch its new T-Mix wireless plans next month, allowing customers to choose and swap perks such as streaming subscriptions, food delivery and other services rather than receiving benefits bundled into fixed plan tiers
• The move is aimed at giving customers more flexibility as carriers compete beyond network coverage and device promotions
• Average revenue per account rose 4% to $155.73 in the third quarter, as more customers shifted to premium offerings
• Accounts represent customer billing relationships and can include multiple wireless lines used by families or businesses
• T-Mobile raised the lower end of its full-year adjusted free cash flow forecast to $18.7 billion from $18.4 billion, while keeping the upper end unchanged at $18.8 billion
• Osvaldik said that the expected increase in free cash flow was mainly driven by strong performance in T-Mobile's core business
• Revenue rose 7.4% to $23.58 billion for the quarter ended September 30, compared with estimates of $23.14 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese and Prathik Jayaprakash in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)