(Reuters) - T-Mobile US Inc <TMUS.O> on Wednesday beat Wall Street estimates for net new phone subscribers who pay a monthly bill, adding 1 million customers in the fourth quarter.
The third largest U.S. mobile carrier was expected to add 857,900 new phone subscribers, according to research firm FactSet.
Last month, T-Mobile won backing from two national security reviews for its deal to buy smaller rival Sprint Corp <S.N> as it strives for more scale to compete with Verizon Communications Inc <VZ.N> and AT&T Inc <T.N>.
The report on subscriber numbers comes a day after Verizon beat Wall Street estimates for net new phone subscribers who pay a monthly bill, adding 650,000 customers in the fourth quarter.
T-Mobile's postpaid phone churn, or the percentage of subscribers who leave a service provider, was 0.99 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 1.02 percent in the quarter ended Sept. 30.
For the third quarter, T-Mobile exceeded analysts' estimates for net new phone subscribers and profit, driven by its competitive wireless plans and trade-in offers for iPhones aimed at fending off its bigger rivals.
The company's shares were up nearly 1 percent at $68.32 in morning trading.
(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel and Shounak Dasgupta)
