Deutsche Telekom records strong mobile contract customer growth and leading position on market for new DSL customers

In the 2007 financial year, Deutsche Telekom significantly increased its customer base in Germany and abroad and systematically implemented the Group’s “Focus, fix and grow” strategy. Not only the marketing of attractive products, such as Entertain, MyFaves and Apple iPhone, but also the new rates from T-Home and T-Mobile introduced last year enhanced the company’s competitiveness. In addition, the acquisition of Orange in the Netherlands contributed to the growth in mobile customers.

T-Home again secured a leading position in terms of DSL broadband lines following positive development of its complete packages on the domestic market. With a new broadband customer ratio of almost 44 percent, the target of 40 to 45 percent was clearly reached, making T-Home the number one on the German market. The number of retail DSL broadband customers rose by 526,000 in the fourth quarter. As a result, more than 9 million customers in Germany now have a broadband line direct from T-Home. This represents an increase of almost 2 million customers in 2007. In addition, around 3.5 million resale lines were marketed via external competitors. The total number of DSL lines in Germany from T-Home therefore increased by around 22 percent year-on-year to more than 12.5 million lines. The Broadband/Fixed Network business area increased the number of broadband lines in Eastern Europe by around 40 percent to just under 1.4 million subscribers.

As of the reporting date, 10.1 million customers had opted for one of the complete packages – an increase of more than 200 percent compared to the previous year figure of 3.3 million.1.1 million new customers were added in the fourth quarter alone. The Entertain package has also demonstrated its suitability for the mass market: Between the beginning of September and the end of the year, the total number of customers connected was increased to 116,000 with 150,000 Entertain packages having been sold by the end of 2007.

A total of around 2.1 million lines were lost in Germany in 2007, 537,000 of which were in the fourth quarter – the same level as last year.

T-Mobile successfully continued to expand its customer base in the 2007 financial year. The national companies in Eastern Europe and the USA were drivers of this growth. In addition to organic growth, the acquisition of Orange in the Netherlands contributed to the positive subscriber development. As of the reporting date, the number of mobile customers worldwide had risen to a total of 119.6 million including the some 2.2 million customers from Orange Nederland. Net additions amounted to 11.1 million last year, representing an increase of 10.3 percent. Customers found the mobile Internet and data services particularly attractive. By the end of 2007, 3.2 million T-Mobile customers in Europe were already using mobile Internet via web’n’walk.

T-Mobile also continued to increase its customer base in Germany and reported almost 36 million customers as of the year-end. Almost 1 million of these customers opted for fixed-term contracts in 2007, of which 385,000 in the fourth quarter alone. In particular, the introduction of further innovative products significantly reinforced T-Mobile’s competitiveness in Germany. Following its market launch at the beginning of October, T”‘Mobile’s new MyFaves calling plan attracted over 100,000 net additions in Germany. Since the revolutionary iPhone was introduced in Germany at the beginning of November, it has been purchased by 70,000 customers to date in conjunction with a T-Mobile contract.

T-Mobile USA once again made the largest contribution to continued growth abroad, recording 28.7 million customers as of the end of the financial year. In the fourth quarter of 2007, T-Mobile gained 951,000 net additions in the USA, 733,000 of which were contract customers. The extremely positive development of the MyFaves calling plan contributed significantly to this growth, with 5 million customers opting for MyFaves between its market launch and the end of the year. In addition, the new FlexPay Service enabled the customer base to be expanded. With an innovative prepaid system, almost the entire range of T-Mobile USA services and devices is available to customers in the United States using FlexPay. The acquisition of SunCom will further enhance Deutsche Telekom’s position in the US market.

T-Mobile UK has also continued to develop extremely well. 406,000 net additions last year brought the total number of customers to 17.3 million. The Flext calling plan continues to be in great demand, with 2.1 million customers as of the end of the year.

All in all, this means that Deutsche Telekom is leading the field in mobile and broadband business in Europe.