German telecoms group Deutsche Telekom (DT) has reported revenue of EUR75.65 billion (USD85.8 billion) for the twelve months ended 31 December 2018, a rise of 0.9% from EUR74.95 billion the previous year. The growth was mainly driven by T-Mobile US, which posted a 2.2% year-on-year increase in turnover to EUR36.52 billion. The Bonn-based telco posted group EBITDA of EUR21.84 billion for full year 2018, down 8.9% year-on-year, although adjusted EBITDA grew 5.0% over the same timeframe to EUR23.33 billion. Reported net profit (including special factors) declined 37.4% from EUR3.46 billion to EUR2.16 billion over the twelve-month period, while adjusted net profit slumped 24.7% in 2018 to EUR4.54 billion, primarily due to the positive one-time effects of the corporate tax reform in the US during the prior year. Looking ahead, DT says it forecasts adjusted EBITDA to grow by around 3% in 2019 to around EUR23.9 billion.
DT’s domestic operating segment generated revenue of EUR21.70 billion in 2018, a slight decrease of 1.1% year-on-year and EBITDA also declined by 1.1% to EUR8.01 billion. The firm’s German mobile subscriber base reached 44.20 million at the end of 2018 (an increase of 2.5% from 43.12 million a year earlier). Domestic fixed broadband lines grew 2.7% y-o-y to 13.56 million (of which 7.24 million were fibre-based – VDSL, Vectoring and FTTH – lines, up by 24.7%) and pay-TV accesses rose 6.8% to 3.35 million, while fixed network lines continued to slide, falling from 19.24 million at the end of 2017 to 18.62 million twelve months later.
T-Mobile US ended December 2018 with 79.65 million mobile subscribers, an increase of 9.7% from 72.58 million a year earlier, as the number of branded post-paid customers rose 11.8% y-o-y to 42.52 million. Total mobile customers across DT’s European operations grew by 3.5% to 50.54 million during 2018 and retail broadband lines and TV customers increased by 15.8% to 6.41 million and by 13.9% to 4.83 million, respectively, thanks to the takeover of cableco UPC Austria. Revenue in the Europe segment rose by 2.6% y-o-y to EUR11.88 billion in FY 2018, with EBITDA jumping 3.8% from EUR3.62 billion in 2017 to EUR3.76 billion the following year.