Disqus
I mentioned in earlier posts about China Mobile and Tata Communications – well now it’s the turn of Deutsche Telekom:
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 iPhone 3G or the Android-based T-Mobile 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.
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
