T-Mobile International grows customer base to over 80 millions

  • T-Mobile USA continues to be the main growth driver
  • T-Mobile captured the top position among the operators in the Czech Republic
  • "Save for Growth" program shows first positive results in aid of the sustained growth strategy
  • T-Mobile Deutschland: 42.5 percent EBITDA margin up 2,5 percentage points and 623,000 net new customers bringing up the German customer base to 28.2 million
  • EBITDA growth of 17 percent compared to second quarter 2004

Bonn, 11 August 2005 - T-Mobile International added more than 2 million customers in the second quarter 2005 and served 80.9 million customers in the consolidated countries on June 30, 13 percent more than a year before.

Total revenues compared to the second quarter 2004 were up 7.9 percent to EUR 7.2 billion and adjusted EBITDA was up 16.6 percent to EUR 2.5 billion. The Q2 results show that T-Mobile is well on the way to meet all the expectations of its "Save for Growth" efficiency program.

"Our second quarter results show the positive impact of our 'Save for Growth' program, both in meeting efficiency targets and in releasing additional investment in growth" said René Obermann, CEO T-Mobile International. "Not subsidizing areas where we will never see a return of investment but finding new customers with attractive tariffs is the right way to go. In Europe we have successfully boosted the marketing of our Relax tariffs and 3.9 million of our customers now use a Relax tariff option."

T-Mobile USA continued its phenomenal growth story with 972,000 net customer adds, more than in the first quarter of this year. At the same time compared to the second quarter 2004 it increased its EBITDA by 55 percent to 857 million, eliminating the currency factor on a U.S. Dollar base even 62 percent.

T-Mobile Deutschland reports this quarter's highest customer growth among all German operators. 623,000 net adds bringing its total customer base to 28.2 million. 48 percent of the new customers optioned for a postpaid contract. The 42.5 percent EBITDA margin is 2.1 percentage points higher than in the second quarter of last year, showing the impact of T-Mobile's consistent focus on profitable growth.

These positive results show clearly that measures taken in the course of the "Save for Growth" program prove to be successful. Already in 2005 T-Mobile is reducing its operating costs significantly through efficiency measures, including for example handset management and most of the savings are being re-invested in growth initiatives, for example through improved tariffs and mobile Internet services.

T-Mobile is the first mobile operator in Europe to bring open Internet access to mobile phones. Web'n'walk is the name of the offer that T-Mobile is using to compile attractive packages for mobile users in the World Wide Web. The first web'n'walk offers are already available in Germany and Austria. In the course of the year, mobile Internet will also spread to Great Britain, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

The vital difference to mobile portals and their often restricted content is that web'n'walk gives T-Mobile customers not only far greater flexibility in Internet usage but also the advantages of the open Internet, with optimized quality and low package prices.

Generally, interest in mobile data services is quite high: In the first half year of 2005 T-Mobile sold more than 260,000 data centric devices such as MDA and Sidekick in Europe. And more than a further million multimedia devices that allow downloads of videos, games, music or e-mails were sold in Europe at the same time. In the US there are almost 600,000 customers using a Blackberry handset.

T-Mobile will be one of the first operators worldwide to launch high-speed UMTS at CeBIT 2006. In the first phase with HSDPA, transfer rates of up to 1.8 Mbit/s will be possible.

1H 2005 1H 2004 delta %
number of customers ('000) 80 879 71 582 13,0
T-Mobile Deutschland 28 183 27 059 4,2
T-Mobile USA 19 244 15 394 25,0
T-Mobile UK* 16 055 14 899 7,8
T-Mobile Netherlands 2 250 2 224 1,2
T-Mobile Austria  2 047 2 015 1,6
T-Mobile Czech Republic 4 463 4 075 9,5
T-Mobile Hungary 4 081 3 913 4,3
T-Mobile Slovensko 1 904 1 740 9,4
T-Mobile Hrvatska 1 651 1 380 19,7
Others (Macedonia/Montenegro) 1 000 623 28,4

Note: *including Virgine Mobile


 
About the Company

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.