German telecoms group Deutsche Telekom (DT) has reported net revenue of EUR19.10 billion (USD21.9 billion) for the three months ended 30 September 2018, an increase of 4.7% from EUR18.25 billion in the year-ago quarter. The Bonn-based company said that EBITDA totalled EUR5.87 billion for the third quarter of 2018, down 19.7% from EUR7.32 billion twelve months previously, although adjusted EBITDA grew 8.5% year-on-year to EUR6.21 billion. Reported net profit jumped from EUR507 million in 3Q17 to EUR1.11 billion twelve months later (due to major special factors in 3Q17), and adjusted net profit rose by 6.2% to EUR1.32 billion over the same timeframe. DT has raised its full-year forecast for the third time this year; it now expects to post adjusted EBITDA of around EUR23.6 billion in 2018, revised from the EUR23.2 billion forecast at the start of the year. ‘Things are looking up in all areas of the Group, and that enables us to set the bar a fraction higher. It sends a very optimistic signal,’ said CEO Tim Hoettges.
DT’s German businesses generated revenue of EUR5.44 billion in Q3 2018, down by 0.9% y-o-y, while adjusted EBITDA rose 2.1% to EUR2.22 billion. At 30 September 2018 the firm’s German wireless subscriber base stood at 43.65 million (an increase of 2.6% from 42.53 million a year earlier), with fixed broadband connections rising 3.0% y-o-y to 13.50 million (of which 6.89 million were VDSL, vectoring and FTTH lines, up by 27.3%) and pay-TV accesses growing 6.5% to 3.29 million.
Internationally, T-Mobile US reported a 9.0% y-o-y rise in turnover to EUR9.23 billion, thanks to rapid customer growth which has seen the cellco add more than a million new customers in each of the last 22 quarters. The unit ended September 2018 with 77.25 million mobile subscribers, an increase of 9.2% from 70.73 million a year earlier. Total mobile customers across DT’s European operations grew by 4.6% to 50.43 million, while retail broadband lines and TV customers grew 15.3% to 6.29 million and 13.9% to 4.78 million, respectively. Revenue in the Europe segment rose by 3.4% y-o-y to EUR3.05 billion in Q3 2018 and adjusted EBITDA increased 5.5% to EUR1.06 billion.