T-Mobile International records revenue and customer growth in the third quarter

[Nikos Kartalis]

• 10.2 percent more customers and 9.3 percent more revenue compared with the first nine months of 2005
• T-Mobile Germany increases net additions and EBITDA margin
• Over 500,000 customers opt for Relax 1000, Max & Co.
• T-Mobile USA nearing the 25 million customer mark
• T-Mobile UK with double-digit revenue growth

T-Mobile International is continuing its growth course, acquiring approximately 1.4 million new customers in the third quarter of 2006. Encouragingly, around 89 percent of these were in the profitable contract customer segment, continuing the trend of the previous quarters. Total revenue climbed by 9.3 percent (EUR 2 billion) to EUR 23.6 billion. T-Mobile USA recorded the strongest growth at 18.2 percent. Amounting to EUR 7.3 billion in the first nine months of the year, T-Mobile’s EBITDA was up slightly year-on-year. The EBITDA margin in the third quarter was much higher than in previous quarters at 32.8 percent. This positive development is primarily attributable to T-Mobile UK’s considerably improved EBITDA margin of 28 percent.

Details on the individual national companies:

T-Mobile Germany enjoyed a successful third quarter: With 30.7 million customers, it grew by around 7 percent year-on-year and had 236,000 more customers than in the previous quarter, 150,000 of which were contract customers. In spite of the sharp drop in call minute prices attributable to intense competitive pressure and lower termination charges, revenue declined by only 3.6 percent compared with the first three quarters of 2005 and actually increased slightly when compared with the previous quarter (EUR 2.12 billion as against EUR 2.06 billion). The EBITDA margin exceeded 40 percent (42.1 percent), up from 39.3 percent in the previous quarter. Service revenues also improved to EUR 1.95 billion from EUR 1.87 billion in the second quarter. ARPU development remained stable across all customer segments and actually increased by EUR 2 quarter-on-quarter in the contract customer segment (now EUR 37). The new calling plans, some of which have only been marketed since the beginning of October, are proving very popular: Over 500,000 existing and new customers have already opted for the new rates such as Basix, Relax 400, Relax 1000, and the Max flat rate.

T-Mobile USA attracted approximately 800,000 new customers in the past quarter and with now 24.1 million subscribers is close to reaching the 25 million mark. This means that around 19 percent more customers than only one year ago are using T-Mobile USA’s network. Revenue rose by over 18 percent compared with the first three quarters of 2005 and amounted to EUR 3.4 billion in the third quarter. Service revenues gained over 21 percent in the same period (Q1 - Q3), reaching EUR 2.8 billion in the third quarter.

T-Mobile UK recorded encouraging double-digit revenue growth of around 10 percent to approximately EUR 1.2 billion. This company’s EBITDA margin expanded substantially, climbing from 15.2 percent in the second quarter to 28 percent. Service revenues also increased by a sizeable 16 percent compared with the same quarter in 2005 and now amount to EUR 1.1 billion. The number of customers remained more or less stable on the previous quarter at around 16.7 million, impacted by the large-scale deregistration of prepaid cards of approximately 54,000.

T-Mobile Austria acquired 45,000 new customers in this quarter, expanding its customer base to 3.2 million. Compared with the second quarter of 2006, EBITDA increased by EUR 32 million to EUR 110 million, while the EBITDA margin grew from 27.4 to 32.8 percent.

T-Mobile Netherlands was able to book its strongest growth of the year (85,000 net new customers) this quarter. This comes despite decreased dealer sales commissions and lower cell phone subsidies.

T-Mobile’s business in Central and Eastern European countries is also doing well. In the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Croatia, for example, the national companies recorded double-digit revenue growth. T-Mobile’s customer development in these countries was in line with expectations. Growth rates were between 5.2 percent (Hungary) and 19.6 percent (Croatia).