German telecoms group Deutsche Telekom (DT) has reported net revenue of EUR18.105 billion (USD20.02 billion) for the third quarter of 2016, an increase of 5.9% from EUR17.099 billion in the year-ago period. The growth was driven by ‘the star of the mobile market’ T-Mobile US, which reported a 17.3% year-on-year jump in turnover, to EUR8.281 billion, thanks to rapid customer growth. The Bonn-based company posted EBITDA of EUR5.334 billion for the three months ended 30 September 2016, up 16.4% from EUR4.581 billion in 3Q15, while adjusted EBITDA grew 7.2% year-on-year to EUR5.535 billion. Reported net profit jumped from EUR809 million to EUR1.053 billion over the twelve-month period, mainly due to higher ‘negative special factors’ in connection with staff restructuring in the previous year, while adjusted net profit was stable y-o-y at EUR1.040 billion.
DT’s domestic operating segment generated revenue of EUR5.551 billion in the third quarter of 2016, down slightly from EUR5.593 billion in 3Q15, while adjusted EBITDA also declined by 0.8% to EUR2.250 billion. At 30 September 2016 the firm’s German wireless subscriber base stood at 41.461 million (an increase of 3.9% from 39.892 million a year earlier), with fixed broadband lines growing 1.9% y-o-y to 12.835 million (of which 3.857 million were fibre-based – VDSL, Vectoring and FTTH – lines, up by 47.6%) and pay-TV accesses rising 7.1% to 2.818 million.
Internationally, T-Mobile US ended the third quarter of 2016 with 69.354 million mobile subscribers, an increase of 13.3% from 61.220 million a year earlier, as the number of branded post-paid customers jumped 9.3% y-o-y to 33.230 million. In contrast, total mobile customers across DT’s European operations declined by 7.2% from 56.246 million at 30 September 2015 to 52.211 million a year later, although retail broadband lines and TV customers rose 4.5% to 5.352 million and 4.6% to 4.010 million, respectively. Revenue in the Europe segment fell by 1.2% y-o-y to EUR3.223 billion in Q3 2016 and adjusted EBITDA dropped 4.9% to EUR1.100 billion, attributed to regulatory effects and higher market investments.