Mike Sievert
President and Chief Executive Officer at T-Mobile US
Okay. Thanks, Jud. Thanks, everybody. Welcome to our third quarter call. Thanks for tuning in. It is so great to be back to talk about another quarter of outstanding results by this team. Our differentiated strategy is working. Our ongoing focus on delivering the best value while simultaneously capitalizing on our network leadership position has delivered another quarter of industry-leading growth in customers, EBITDA and cash flow, and we're raising our 2022 guidance for the third consecutive quarter this year. All of this while completing our biggest integration milestone. I am incredibly proud of this team.
As we told you, when our merger closed, our plan was to expand on our fame as the industry's best value, while building and becoming known for having the best network in the country, finally giving customers the ability to have both from one provider for the first time ever.
Now, just two-and-a-half years later, we're doing exactly what we planned. Our brand strength for value leadership has never been better. And it's been further aided by our competitors' price increases. And our long established 5G lead is translating to overall network leadership for the first time and giving customers the beginnings of really a powerful network that they're really noticing.
Our results this quarter are a clear demonstration of how differentiated and sustainable our growth strategy really is. Only T-Mobile has both this unique combination of network and value leadership and multiple, large scale, new and under-penetrated segments to tap into.
To grow our business, we are also driving innovation where it matters most for customers. Through Magenta MAX, our most popular plan and the best expression of T-Mobile's 5G network, we're providing features that are meaningful to customers in their daily lives. Like with the recent addition of Apple TV+ and our Un-carrier move Coverage Beyond where we're not just keeping people connected on the ground, but also in the air and when they go abroad. With the launch of Easy Switch and Network Pass, we're making it simple and risk free to experience our network and make the switch to T-Mobile.
It has long been established that T-Mobile is the 5G leader. But with the rapidly growing adoption of 5G by consumers and businesses, we're now seeing that 5G lead translate into overall network leadership. And to back it up, we're beginning to win more third-party recognition for our network leadership from multiple third parties, like Ookla, umlaut, and PC Magazine. This is precisely the network evolution that we planned. We knew that 5G leadership would eventually translate into overall network leadership. And that's exactly what is now unfolding.
And speaking of network, we just hit our biggest merger integration milestone. By the end of Q3, we had successfully decommissioned substantially all targeted Sprint macro sites, more than a year earlier than our original merger plan. And our ultra-capacity 5G now reaches 250 million Americans. Think about that. Today, we're already where Verizon hopes to be more than two years from now.
And we're not stopping. We recognize the importance of coverage to customers. And we will continue to pursue more opportunities to ensure our network is there for them whenever and wherever they need us. This lean and data-informed, customer-driven coverage approach will guide us as we enhance and expand our network to even higher levels and in a capital-efficient way, using our spectrum resources.
We also recognize that there are some places where it's just not practical for any wireless operator to build a terrestrial network. But because we want T-Mobile customers to have peace of mind that we have them covered no matter where they go, in Q3, we announced our joint effort with SpaceX to do just that, combining a slice of our mid-band spectrum that's already compatible with existing customer devices with next gen satellite technology from SpaceX. Our goal is for T-Mobile customers to be connected anywhere in the US where they can see the sky.
Overall, this differentiated growth strategy and emerging network leadership produced another quarter of truly differentiated results. So, let's get right into them.
In Q3, we posted a record 394,000 postpaid account net adds, the highest in company history, and the highest reported in the industry again. Winning the switching decisions in this industry and growing share through our core growth strategies I've outlined for you many times is the central growth ambition of our company. And this quarter, we did that better than ever before.
In addition, our network and value proposition are consistently attracting the industry's best customers, which is contributing to an all-time high in our customer prime mix. And we delivered an industry best 1.6 million postpaid net additions, more than AT&T and Verizon combined.
We had our highest postpaid phone net adds since the merger, with an industry leading 854,000. Our postpaid phone churn of just 0.88% improved 8 basis points from last year. Once again, we were the only wireless service provider to improve year-over-year. And our postpaid phone churn, including Sprint, was lower than Verizon's for the second consecutive quarter.
And as I said, our multiple growth opportunities are all contributing to this success. Consider smaller markets in rural areas, which include 40% of the US population. At the end of last year, we only had a competitive network and distribution to effectively compete in 30% of those households. Today, thanks to our accelerated network build, we have already surpassed our year-end target to compete in 50% of these households. And we now expect to reach roughly 60% by the end of this year.
We also continue to grow in the top 100 markets as we win the prime network seekers who are increasingly recognizing that T-Mobile has the best network for them, an audience we never effectively competed for in the past. We achieved share leadership in many of these markets in the past without winning on network. All of that is changing. So, the same advantages in network and value proposition that are driving growth in smaller markets in rural areas where we're under penetrated and are driving it in the top 100 where we've always been strong. In fact, our net account growth in the quarter was split roughly equally between these two geographic segments.
Okay, let's talk business. We continue to win business customers from incumbents as T-Mobile for Business continues to build momentum, delivering one of our highest ever postpaid phone net addition quarters in Q3. The impact we're having can be clearly seen in Verizon's business churn, which was up again at the highest levels they've ever reported. Meanwhile, we added more business accounts and had lower business phone churn than Verizon in the quarter, delivering one of our lowest ever postpaid phone churn quarters for business.
Our 5G network leadership, particularly as it relates to our lead in advanced 5G services, is increasingly enabling us to become a strategic partner for enterprises and for government agencies.
Okay, let me briefly touch on high speed internet, where net additions of 578,000 hit another record high. And once again, we expect to lead the industry in net adds. In fact, I anticipate that T-Mobile had more broadband net additions than AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Charter combined for the second quarter in a row.
In addition, our high speed internet attracted consumers and businesses who are new to T-Mobile at an increasing pace, establishing new relationships that we can grow with additional products and services over time. In just a year-and-a-half since our commercial launch, we now serve more than 2 million customers, Net Promoter Scores more than 30 points higher than cable, and even higher than the average fiber provider. These results demonstrate that our differentiated growth strategy and our Un-carrier playbook to provide customers with the best value and the best network continues to win. And our differentiation is a particular source of strength in this everchanging, competitive and macroeconomic environment.
And importantly, we translated our leading customer growth into industry-leading financial growth and postpaid service revenues, core adjusted EBITDA and cash flows. This momentum has enabled us to raise our guidance every quarter this year, including today.
Finally, as you know, thanks to our strong execution and confidence in the future, our board authorized a substantial share repurchase program, and did so earlier than our initial Analyst Day plans to begin in 2023. I could not be prouder of this team and of these results.
Okay, Peter, over to you to talk about our key financial highlights and some more information on our guidance.