Deutsche Telekom focuses on fiber investment for growth

Deutsche Telekom network EuropeDeutsche Telekom has posted revenue of €74.9 billion (+2.5 percent), adjusted EBITDA of €22.45 billion (+3.8 percent) and net profit of €3.5 billion (+29.4 percent) in 2017.

Deutsche Telekom made record-level investments of €12 billion (+10.4 percent) excluding expenses for mobile spectrum including €5.4 billion in Germany alone with a strong focus on investment in optical fiber.

Deutsche Telekom’s Q4 2017 revenue was €19.16 billion (–2 percent), EBITDA of €4.7 billion (–3 percent) and net profit of €1.3 billion.

“Deutsche Telekom continues to grow in its global markets,” said CEO Tim Hottges.

Deutsche Telekom faced revenue crisis in Germany telecom market due to competition. The revenue of Germany business unit rose 0.7 percent to €21.931 billion. T-Mobile US, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, performed well with revenue growing at 5.9 percent to €35.736 billion. Its European business also did not perform well as revenue growth was 1.2 percent to €11.589 billion. 23.5 percent was the dip in revenue from enterprise business with revenue touching €6.851 billion last year.

Its Germany business achieved 1.4 percent growth in subscriber base to 43.125 million. T-Mobile US’ wireless subscriber base rose 2.6 percent to 72.585 million fighting against AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. 1.3 percent was the growth in the subscriber base of European business units reaching 48.842 million in Q4 2017.

Deutsche Telekom is expecting a moderate increase in revenue, 4 percent increase in adjusted EBITDA to around 23.2 billion euros in 2018.

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Deutsche Telekom investment

Deutsche Telekom laid 40,000 kilometers of new fiber-optic cable in Germany in 2017. The telecom operator has plans to reach 60,000 kilometers with fiber-optic cable in 2018. The number of fiber-optic lines has reached 9.6 million (+41 percent) with over 30 million households will be able to access to Deutsche Telekom’s fiber-optic network.

T-Mobile Austria plans to acquire the cable network operator UPC Austria, while T-Mobile Polska signed a letter of intent with its rival Orange Polska on a partnership that will open up access to Orange’s fiber-optic network.

In Europe, Deutsche Telekom enhanced fiber-optic technology coverage by 1.3 million to reach 6.2 million households. LTE coverage reaches 106 million people or 94 percent of the population, up 13 million in 2016.