Sprint merger drives Deutsche Telekom beyond €100 billion in 2020 revenues

Tim Höttges, CEO Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom experienced a record year, with net revenues up by 25.4% to €101 billion.

Announcing its year-end results, the Germany-based operator said that EBITDA AL rose by 41.6% to €35, and by 7.9% in organic terms.

The company admitted that the significant growth was mainly driven by the acquisition of Sprint in the US, but said that revenue still grew when excluding the deal.

Overall, Deutsche Telekom thereby exceeded its guidance for the year in spite of the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The operator said that it felt the pandemic in lower roaming revenues due to travel restrictions, shop closures, and impeded business with corporate customers.

In Germany, Deutsche Telekom added 121,000 new broadband customers in Q4, and an addition of 388,000 for the entire year to a total of 14.1 million. Its MagentaEINS fixed-mobile package also saw success and passed 5 million subscribers in the quarter. Revenue for the country narrowly grew by 0.2% to €23.8 billion for the year. 

Across Europe (not including DACH), revenues were stable at €11.3 billion for the year. In Q4, the number of mobile contract customers increased by 219,000 and the number of broadband customers by 87,000. The number of users of converged fixed-mobile product packages increased by 248,000. At year-end, the customer base was 19.5% larger than a year earlier.

As mentioned, the US business carried most of the growth thanks to the Sprint deal, with its customer base increasing 50% for the year to a total of 102 million. Total revenue for the country increased by 55% to US$70.1 billion, with the merger already realising synergies of US$1.3 billion

CEO Tim Höttges said: “We made history in 2020. We added a substantial and important chapter to Deutsche Telekom’s story. We closed a groundbreaking deal in the United States, improved our market position in Europe and at the same time made an important contribution to managing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic with our stable networks.”