Deutsche Telekom flaunts user gains, details Euro 2024 boost

Deutsche Telekom CFO Christian Illek hailed T-Mobile US’ lead of domestic net subscriber additions during Q2, as the US business was again a key driver of gains, albeit with some positive currency trends helping it along.

Illek noted Deutsche Telekom’s US business broke the 100 million post-paid mobile customer mark for the first time, though the confidence belies the fact its increase in net additions of 1.4 million compared with 1.6 million in Q2 2023.

However, Illek noted post-paid customers fuelled an overall service revenue rise and attributed a bump in the relevant prepaid figure to “organic growth in the customer base” and the inclusion of numbers from Ka’ena.

Deutsche Telekom’s domestic mobile business recorded net additions of 311,000 compared with 319,000, though the unit contributed to a rise in overall service revenue for which Illek also credited its fixed line and TV offerings.

The CFO noted continued gains for Deutsche Telekom’s other European operations, with post-paid mobile net additions of 183,000 up 10,000 on Q2 2023 and stability in its FMC customer base, though the broadband figure was 19,000 less at 53,000.

Illek explained the order book at its T-Systems unit was up 28 per cent, “primarily driven” by positive trends in its cloud business.

Overall, it is fair to say that Deutsche Telekom’s financial figures developed well in the second quarter of 2024.

Christian Illek – CFO Deutsche Telekom

H1
During Deutsche Telekom’s earnings call, CEO Timotheus Hoettges noted broadly positive trends across all of its units during the opening six months, in particular around fibre deployments in Germany and Europe.

Hoettges revealed the recent UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament in Germany netted it 70 million viewers, “double the number from the FIFA World Cup in 2022”.

Deutsche Telekom’s mobile network “handled around 260 million GB” of data, with its fibre set-up used to transmit matches to “more than 190 countries”.

The football contest gave Deutsche Telekom “a massive image boost”, he said.

All relevant metrics have risen sharply, some are at an all-time high.

Timotheus Hoettges – CEO Deutsche Telekom

Net profit in Q2 rose 35.6 per cent to €2.1 billion, with revenue up 4.3 per cent to €28.4 billion.

But across H1, profit fell 75.9 per cent to €4.1 billion on revenue of €56.3 billion, up 2.3 per cent.