Deutsche Telekom closed out 2020 with a stellar Q4 performance, reporting a surge in its top-line, while T-Mobile US’ tie-up with rival Sprint helped the group edge past €100 billion in revenue for the full year.

The company was particularly buoyant in an earnings statement, stating it had reached triple digits and broke “new financial ground”, recording €101 billion revenue in 2020 driven mainly by the mega merger with Sprint, which closed in April 2020.

“We made history in 2020. We added a substantial and important chapter to Deutsche Telekom’s story,” said CEO Tim Höttges.

For Q4, the company reported a 29.3 per cent revenue increase year on year, reaching €27.6 billion, while net profit also jumped substantially by 155.5 per cent, to €1.8 billion.

In home market Germany, it increased revenue by 0.6 per cent to €6.3 billion, which it achieved despite Covid-19 (coronavirus) headwinds, although the pandemic did have an impact on mobile service revenue, which dipped 1.6 per cent due to decreases in roaming and visitor numbers to the country.

In terms of data usage, it saw a 51 per cent increase, averaging 6GB per customer during the quarter. Mobile customers grew by 682,000, giving it 48.5 million in total.

Its rest of Europe division saw a 2.9 per cent reduction in Q4 revenue, reaching €2.9 billion, which it put down to Covid-19 restrictions. It did however point to positive net additions in mobile contracts, which increased by 219 million and broadband (88 million) as reasons to be positive.

Its overall revenue was however driven by its US unit, which it described as experiencing an “excellent first year”, following the Sprint deal.

Revenue there increased 71.6 per cent to $20.5 billion, on the back of 1.7 million net customer additions, giving it a total customer base in the country of 102 million. For the whole of 2020, T-Mobile US had already achieved synergies of $1.3 billion from the Sprint tie-up, Deutsche Telekom added.

The operator said it spent a total €17 billion, nearly 30 per cent more in terms of cash capex, on network investment on both sides of the Atlantic, throughout the year.