T-Mobile USA Boosts Customers as Takeover by AT&T Drags On

T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest US wireless company, added customers for the first time in a year and reported profit that beat estimates as its German owner fights to complete the proposed sale of the unit to AT&T.

Losses of contract subscribers slowed, and gains for lower-priced pay-as- you-go plans led to a net addition of 126,000 customers from the previous quarter. Deutsche Telekom AG and AT&T are battling a lawsuit over the $39 billion takeover by the U.S. Justice Department, which says it would cut competition. While T-Mobile’s third-quarter results may aid the government’s case by showing the carrier is still a strong rival to AT&T, Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless, the arrival of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4S at the three biggest carriers in October might tilt the playing field this quarter. The carrier reported 33.7 million customers at the end of September, compared with 33.69 million three months earlier. The subscriber total fell from 33.8 million a year earlier.