Driven by growing mobile data revenue, T-Mobile USA reported fourth-quarter net income of $483 million--up $100 million from a year ago on revenue of $5.72 billion, up from $5.07 billion. The wireless
operator added 621,000 customers during the quarter to bring its total to 32.8 million.
Mobile data revenue rose to $905 million, up 31% from the year-earlier period. In addition to
messaging, which doubled in volume from a year ago, continued growth in converged devices such as the Android-powered G1 and Samsung Behold also helped to drive mobile data sales, according to
T-Mobile.
Data services revenue now makes up 18.5% of average revenue per user (ARPU), or $9.30, compared to 17.3%, or $8.90. In the fourth quarter, the carrier introduced its web2go service,
intended to provide a better mobile Web browsing experience.--Mark Walsh