Deutsche Telekom reported Q1 revenue of EUR 14.0 billion, up by around 2.7% on a net basis and up around 7.5% on a like-for-like basis excluding discontinued operations and exchange rate variations. Some highlights:
- Mobile was the main driving force behind the increase in reported revenue, recording growth of 11.9%. The effects of exchange rate fluctuations with the U.S. dollar and the pound sterling were particularly strong in this area: organic revenue growth in the mobile communications division was more than 19 percent. T-Online also recorded a strong increase of 10.8 percent in reported revenue. This more than offset the reductions in revenue at T-Com of 6.9 percent, or 4.7 percent on an organic basis, mainly as a result of competitive and economic effects, and, at T-Systems, around 3 percent, or plus 0.3 percent on an organic basis, primarily due to changes in the consolidated group and decreases in the telecommunications segment.
- The broadband market continued to expand considerably. The number of T-DSL lines in operation in Germany increased by 37.5 percent year-on-year to 4.4 million. Including DSL lines operated by T-Com's majority-owned subsidiaries in Eastern Europe -- where the number of DSL lines almost tripled -- T-Com had approximately 4.5 million DSL lines in operation by the end of the first quarter of 2004, a year-on-year increase of 424,000.
- In Germany, T-Mobile recorded around 348,000 new customers in the first quarter of 2004, more than half of whom were contract subscribers.
- T-Mobile USA increased its customer base by almost a third in the past 12 months to 14.3 million. In the first quarter of 2004 alone, T-Mobile USA recorded almost 1.2 million new customers -- 93 percent of whom are fixed-term contract subscribers.
- During Q1, T-Online increased its number of customers by around 1 million year-on-year to approximately 13.4 million.
- Free cash flow increased considerably by EUR 0.9 billion year-on-year to EUR 2.9 billion in the first quarter of 2004.
- Net debt decreased further in the first quarter of this year, after debt reduction targets had already been exceeded at the end of 2003. Net debt amounted to EUR 44.6 billion at the end of March 2004. This represents a decrease of around EUR 2.0 billion since the end of 2003.
- The number of ISDN channels in Germany increased by a further 301,000 compared with the end of 2003 to 21.8 million channels in the first quarter of 2004, almost offsetting the decrease in analog lines.
- The workforce was reduced by 13.6 percent to 125,700 employees as a result of successful staff reduction measures.
