T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the US, may reportedly lose as many as three times the number of contract subscribers this year as compared to 2010. With the Justice Department of USA refusing to AT&T’s proposed merger with T-mobile, the company has been unable to cut prices, one of T-mobile’s most important features to attract customers.

Sources claim that the number of customers on monthly contracts is expected to fall by about 1.2 million as compared to 390,000 last year, thereby bringing the company’s contract subscribers to a total of 25.2 million by the year end. Analysts and industry insiders claim that a significant reason for the reduction of T-Mobile’s market share is due to the fact that it has been unable to use the drastic price cuts as adopted previously. T-mobile has been known to offer promotions such as 1000 minutes at $40 a month and days when a phone was given free with every new contract. Further, with Sprint also joining the list of operators offering the iPhone in the USA, T-Mobile is the only major operator in the USA which does not offer its subscribers such an option.

However, even though contract subscribers are expected to reduce, analysts believe that the number of prepaid subscribers for T-Mobile is expected to go up especially in lieu of their offers regarding unlimited text messaging and web access.