Deutsche Telekom – another growth story!

I mentioned in earlier posts about China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) and Tata Communications – well now it’s the turn of Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT):

Deutsche Telekom substantially increased its customer numbers in the DSL and mobile communications areas in 2008. Successful plans such as the Call&Surf all-in packages, the Max mobile flat rates or the community service MyFaves in the United States and innovative products like Entertain, the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone 3G or the Android-based T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) G1 made a significant contribution to increasing competitiveness in Germany and continuing the growth course abroad.

Encouraging developments continued on the mobile communications markets in 2008. The number of customers with the companies in Europe and the United States totaled 128.3 million. This means that the number of customers increased organically by 7.6 million. The contract customer segment accounts for 5 million of this growth with a current customer base of 65.9 million.

T-Mobile Deutschland also defended its leading position in Germany. With over 950,000 new contract customers, the high level of the previous year was reached once again. The successful introduction of the Apple iPhone 3G and the attractive range of calling plans were the main reasons for this development. Contract customer business also proved successful for the Polish subsidiary PTC. With almost 920,000 new fixed-term contract customers, PTC upped the high level in 2007 by a further 5 percent. The percentage of the total customer base also rose in the Czech Republic, United Kingdom and Austria. Business also developed very positively at the Southeastern European mobile companies over the past year. The national companies in Croatia, Slovakia and Hungary recorded a significant increase in the number of contract customers.

T-Mobile USA had a customer base of 32.8 million at the end of the year, including SunCom, which was fully consolidated in February 2008. Organic customer growth – excluding SunCom – was thus almost 3 million compared with the end of 2007. Including SunCom, total customer growth was 4.1 million. The U.S mobile subsidiary set standards in mobilizing the Internet with the launch of the T-Mobile G1 on October 22, 2008. The world’s first Android-based device met with high demand. By consistently upgrading its mobile communications network, T-Mobile USA created the conditions for further growth in mobile data business. At the end of the year, broadband 3G mobile services were available to around 107 million people in the United States. This figure is set to almost double following further network expansion in 2009.

So, a good year for T-Mobile – some good exclusive devices, and product/service developments! For the full press release, including detailed graphing/tables, click here.