Deutsche Telekom reported a 9.3% rise in third quarter revenue on Thursday, as another strong showing by T-Mo bile US once again offset a lacklustre performance in Europe.
Over the last 12 months, the German incumbent’s U.S. business has firmly established itself as the biggest single contributor to the telco’s quarterly group revenue, which reached €17.1 billion at the end of September.
Deutsche Telekom generated revenue of €7.06 billion in the U.S. in the third quarter, up from €5.55 billion in the same period a year earlier. By comparison, revenue at the domestic operation was flat year-on-year at €5.59 billion.
Revenue at the rest of Deutsche Telekom’s European business continued to weigh on results, declining 3.6% to €3.2 billion in the three months to 30 September.
The U.S. was the only region to report growth in adjusted EBITDA too.
Overall adjusted EBITDA grew 12.9% on-year to €5.17 billion, driven by the U.S., where adjusted EBITDA surged 67.9% to €1.7 billion. That offset a 2.4% decline in Germany, and a 3% fall in Europe.
Net profit jumped to €809 million from €506 million, driven by lower operating expenses, which came in at €173 million compared to €406 million a year earlier, and by slightly lower finance costs.
"We are resolutely forging ahead with our strategy," said Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges, in a statement.
The company ended the quarter with 17.7 million retail broadband lines, up from 17.2 million in Q3 2014. Germany accounted for 12.6 million of the total, with the remaining 5.1 million coming from its European division.
On the mobile, side, Deutsche Telekom’s customer base increased to 157.4 million from 149.1 million, driven primarily by T-Mobile US, which saw subscribers increase to 61.2 million from 52.9 million a year earlier.
Mobile customers in Germany increased slightly to 39.9 million from 39.7 million. The firm’s LTE network now covers 87% of the population, compared to 79% a year ago.
Growth in Germany and the U.S . more than offset a slight decline in the rest of Europe, where the mobile base fell to 55.7 million from 56.1 million.
Deutsche Telekom confirmed its full-year guidance of adjusted EBITDA of approximately €18.3 billion and free cash flow of €4.3 billion.
