Deutsche Telekom head Timotheus Hoettges (pictured) branded the performance of its US business during the opening quarter as sensational, while also highlighing positive trends throughout the operator group.

Group revenue increased 8.7 per cent year-on-year to €19.5 billion, with the US being a strong performer (€9.8 billion, up 15.9 per cent). Profit decreased 9.3 per cent to €900 million, with the company noting €0.3 billion of “special factors” such as “staff-related measures” and the effects of deconsolidation, disposals and acquisitions.

The top-line was boosted by changes in the US dollar exchange rate and the inclusion of Tele2 Netherlands in the numbers. Deutsche Telekom said that like-for-like, excluding exchange rate effects and changes in group composition, revenue increased by 3.5 per cent.

Not all of the numbers were outstanding: the company acknowledged revenue in its home market “edged up” 0.6 per cent to €5.4 billion, with EBITDA up 1.6 per cent to €1.95 billion. It noted 4.4 million customers had signed up for MagentaEINS fixed and mobile bundles, a 17.1 per cent year-on-year increase.

For the Europe segment, revenue increased 2.8 per cent to €2.9 billion, with EBITDA up 14.4 per cent to €1 billion. The operator said the first-time consolidation of UPC Austria had a positive effect.

It also noted that within one year, the number of users of convergent offers increased 54 per cent to 3.8 million. More than 42 per cent of broadband households used converged products, up more than 10 points, with Greece in particular performing strongly.

Outlay and layoffs
Cash capex (including spectrum investments) increased from €3.1 billion to €3.8 billion, with spend on construction and upgrade of networks. The increase was attributed to the US, mainly to support the accelerated deployment of 600MHz infrastructure on the road to 5G.

As of 31 March 2019, Deutsche Telekom had 44.7 million mobile customers in Germany, up 4.5 per cent year-on-year; 81.3 million mobile customers in the US, up 9.8 per cent; and 47.8 million mobile customers in the Europe segment, down 3 per cent.

The group’s headcount decreased 0.5 per cent compared with the end of 2018, with cuts of 0.4 per cent in Germany following “efficiency enhancement measures” and 2.3 per cent in the US, which was attributed to “seasonal effects”.