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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! Today we're diving into T-Mobile's second quarter 2026 results, and Jordan, this one's got a lot of moving pieces.

JORDAN: It really does, Alex. But before we get into it — this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

ALEX: Right, thanks Jordan. Okay, let's set the scene. T-Mobile's CEO Srini Gopalan came out swinging, calling this "another extraordinary quarter." And honestly, the numbers back that up. Postpaid service revenue up 13% year-over-year, total service revenue up 9%, core adjusted EBITDA up 12%. Those are big numbers for a company this size.

JORDAN: And the headline stat that jumped out at me was their Net Promoter Score — 46, which they're calling the highest NPS in wireless history among the big three carriers. That's not just a vanity metric either, because it's translating directly into subscriber growth. They added 277,000 postpaid accounts in Q2.

ALEX: Let's talk guidance, because CFO Peter Osvaldik gave a lot of detail here. Full-year service revenue guide stays around $77 billion, that's 8% growth. Core adjusted EBITDA guided between $37.1 and $37.5 billion, roughly 10% growth. And here's a nice surprise for shareholders — they actually raised free cash flow guidance to $18.4 to $18.8 billion, up $200 million at the midpoint, mostly thanks to lower cash taxes.

JORDAN: What I found interesting is the postpaid ARPA story. Headline growth was 2%, which sounds a little soft compared to that 13% service revenue number. But Osvaldik explained that's a comp issue — last year's UScellular acquisition and the fiber joint venture brought in lower-ARPA customers. Strip out the M&A noise and ARPA actually grew 3.7% year-over-year. By the end of the call, he even said they're now tracking toward the higher end of their 2.5-to-3% full-year ARPA guidance.

ALEX: That's a good example of why you have to listen past the top-line number. Now, one thing investors should flag for Q3 — they're expecting postpaid net account additions to drop to around 250,000, way down from the pace we've seen.

JORDAN: Right, and management was upfront about why. They're doing a rate plan modernization in Q3 that's expected to temporarily bump up account churn — but they specifically noted it's concentrated in accounts with fewer lines, so phone churn impact should be much smaller. It's a deliberate, planned dip, not a demand problem. Speaking of churn, actually, postpaid phone churn came in at just 0.85% this quarter, down meaningfully year-over-year.

ALEX: Let's get into the strategic stuff, because there was a lot here. Fixed wireless broadband continues to be a huge growth engine — they call it "5G broadband" now — and they're running under what they call a "fallow capacity model," basically only selling broadband capacity that would otherwise go unused on the network.

JORDAN: And they got a great question on this from an analyst worried that FWA is eating up too much network capacity. CTO John Saw pushed back pretty firmly, saying capacity is still several multiples of what they're actually using, and that AI traffic — which everyone's worried about — hasn't materially hit mobile networks yet because most AI workloads live in wireline data centers, not on phones.

ALEX: They also reiterated their target of 15 million fixed wireless customers by 2030, and interestingly said that number doesn't even include upside from new spectrum they're eyeing — C-Band 2.0 and 2.7 gigahertz, which could become available in 2027 and 2028.

JORDAN: That spectrum conversation was a big theme throughout the Q&A. Management was clearly excited but also cagey on specifics — Srini compared this moment to their earlier bet on 5G

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**ALEX**: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown, bringing you the latest insights from corporate America's quarterly results. I'm Alex, and I'm joined by my co-host Jordan. Today we're diving into T-Mobile's Q1 2026 earnings call, and folks, this was quite a performance from the Un-carrier.

Before we get started, I need to share an important disclaimer: This podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

**JORDAN**: Thanks Alex. And wow, T-Mobile really came out swinging this quarter. Let's start with the headline numbers because they're pretty impressive. Service revenue grew 11% year-over-year - that's four times faster than their closest competitor. But what really caught my eye was their customer satisfaction score, or NPS, hitting 45 - that's over 20% higher than their nearest rival.

**ALEX**: That NPS number is huge, Jordan. It really speaks to their strategy of providing "best network, best value, and best experience" all in one package. CEO Srinivasan Gopalan kept hammering this point that customers don't need to make trade-offs anymore with T-Mobile. And the numbers back it up - they added 217,000 postpaid net accounts, up 6% year-over-year, while also growing their average revenue per account by 3.9%.

**JORDAN**: Exactly. That's the holy grail - growing both customer volume AND revenue per customer. Speaking of growth, their broadband business continues to be a monster. They added over 500,000 broadband customers this quarter and called themselves "the fastest-growing ISP in America" yet again. They're targeting 15 million broadband customers by 2030, and here's the kicker - that projection assumes they don't buy any more spectrum and doesn't factor in 6G improvements.

**ALEX**: The broadband story is fascinating because they're using what they call "fallow capacity" on their 5G network. Essentially, they've built this massive network infrastructure, and during off-peak times, they can sell that unused capacity as home internet service. It's brilliant from a capital efficiency standpoint.

But Jordan, I think the most intriguing part of this call was their discussion about AI and what they're calling "physical AI." They announced a partnership with Figure AI to connect humanoid robots to their 5G Advanced network.

**JORDAN**: This is where things get really futuristic, Alex. T-Mobile is positioning itself at the intersection of AI and connectivity. They talked about building AI capabilities directly into their network core, and they're already beta-testing something called "Live Translation" that can translate your voice into 80 different languages in real-time. But the physical AI angle is what has me excited - they see a world where their network becomes the backbone for robotics and automation.

**ALEX**: The key insight from network chief John Saw was that T-Mobile built their 5G Advanced network specifically with this future in mind. They have innovations like uplink transmit switching and higher transmit power that give them advantages for these AI applications. It's not just about faster phones - they're thinking about robots, autonomous systems, and edge computing.

**JORDAN**: And that brings us to their guidance updates. CFO Peter Osvaldik raised several key metrics. They're now expecting 950,000 to 1.05 million total postpaid net account additions for the full year, up from previous guidance. Core adjusted EBITDA guidance went up by $100 million at the low end to $37.1-37.5 billion. Free cash flow guidance also increased by $100 million to $18.1-18.7 billion.

**ALEX**: Those guidance raises show real confidence in the business momentum. But what really caught investors' attention was the announcement that they're increasing their shareholder return authorization by $3.6 billion to

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**BETA FINCH PODCAST SCRIPT**

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**ALEX:** Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! I'm Alex, and I'm joined by my co-host Jordan. Today we're diving into T-Mobile's Q4 2025 earnings call, which was quite the spectacle - they held it as a special event halfway through their capital markets day cycle.

Before we jump in, I need to share an important disclaimer: This podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

**JORDAN:** Thanks Alex. And what a call this was! New CEO Srini Gopalan really came out swinging, didn't he? Let's start with the headline numbers because they were impressive across the board.

**ALEX:** Absolutely. T-Mobile delivered 261,000 postpaid net account additions in Q4 - and here's the kicker, Jordan - that's 10 times what their nearest competitor who reports this metric delivered. They're not just winning, they're dominating.

**JORDAN:** That account growth is driving real value creation too. They posted 2.7% year-over-year growth in postpaid ARPA - that's Average Revenue Per Account, which is becoming their key metric going forward. More on that shift in a moment. But this translated to service revenue up 10% year-over-year on a reported basis, 5% organically.

**ALEX:** And here's what I love - they converted 25% of that service revenue into free cash flow for the full year. That's an industry-leading conversion rate that really shows the structural advantages of their business model.

**JORDAN:** Now, one of the biggest announcements was their guidance raise. They're now expecting about $77 billion in service revenue for 2026 - that's 8% growth including M&A, or 6% organic growth, which is actually an acceleration from 2025. For 2027, they're guiding to $80.5-81.5 billion, representing 5% growth with about 5% organic.

**ALEX:** What's driving this confidence? Well, Gopalan spent a lot of time talking about T-Mobile's "widening differentiation" - they claim to offer the best network, best value, and best experience with no trade-offs. And the proof is in their Net Promoter Score, which has really opened up a gap versus competitors over the last three years.

**JORDAN:** That NPS story is compelling, Alex. They showed this chart where back in 2023, they were basically neck-and-neck with competitors, but now they've clearly broken away from the pack. And network perception is shifting too - 26% of network switchers now see T-Mobile as having the best network, up from just 12.5% in 2020.

**ALEX:** Speaking of networks, they made some bold claims about being the undisputed 5G leader and even introduced live translation built directly into their network core using AI. Pretty cool stuff, though we should note they love to talk about being first to market with various technologies.

**JORDAN:** The broadband story is getting more interesting too. They raised their target to 15 million FWA customers by 2030, up from 12 million previously, plus they expect 3-4 million fiber customers. That would give them 18-19 million total broadband customers by 2030 - essentially building a massive business from scratch in just seven years.

**ALEX:** Now here's a significant change that caught my attention - they're dropping subscriber-level reporting and focusing exclusively on postpaid accounts and ARPA going forward. CFO Peter Osvaldik said this better aligns with how customers actually buy - as families and businesses, not individual lines.

**JORDAN:** That's a strategic shift that makes sense when you think about it. Over 90% of their postpaid lines are on multi-line accounts anyway. But it also means we'll have less granular data to work with as analysts and investors.

**ALEX:** Let's talk about capital allocation because this was a big theme. They announced they're doubling their Q1 share buyba

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