Telekom, O2 and Vodafone have been engaged in a three-way battle as mobile phone network operators for a long time in the bid for customer favor. Now the Magenta Group is clearly leaving the competition behind.
Deutsche Telekom suffered a decline in sales last year due to negative exchange rate effects. Group revenue fell by 2.1 percent to almost 112 billion euros, as the DAX group announced.
Without exchange rate effects – i.e. organically – it would have been a small plus. Net profit was 17.8 billion euros, which was more than double. The increase was due to the sale of the majority of the radio tower division.
The head of the telecommunications provider, which also has a strong presence in the USA, Tim Höttges, said that they are confident that they will “go even further” this year. The operating result (Ebitda AL), which only rose by 0.7 percent in 2023, is expected to increase by around six percent in 2024.
The company noticeably reduced its workforce: the number of employees fell by around 7,000 to just under 200,000 within a year. Business was going well in Germany: sales rose by 2.8 percent to 24.5 billion euros and the operating result rose by 4.1 percent to 9.8 billion euros.
Telekom was ahead when it came to attracting customers: While Vodafone was able to increase the number of its mobile contract customers by around 95,000 in the final quarter of the year and Telefónica Deutschland (O2) by 284,000, Telekom in Germany increased by 360,000.
Source: Stern
