Telekom Confirms VoiceStream May Be Sold

Deutsche Telekom has reported T-Mobile is the primary source of growth within the Group, with the majority shareholdings of the T-Mobile Group accounting for net additions of around 5.7 million subscribers compared with June 30, 2001. The second quarter alone saw VoiceStream register around 526,000 net customer additions, representing a disproportionately high share of market growth. T-Mobile's total revenue increased by 53% to US$8.95 billion, largely due to companies that were not consolidated for the entire first six months of 2001. EBIDTA for T-Mobile increased by 86% to US$ 2.5 billion.

However, Deutsche Telekom as a whole has posted a record quarterly loss of US$2.04 billion, mainly thanks to depreciation and amortization relating to newly consolidated companies.

Speaking at a press conference, Telekom's onterim CEO Helmut Sihler said that the company has a short term debt reduction target of between US$4 and US$7 billion. Sihler also confirmed that the company is in talks over the future of its USA based VoiceStream subsidiary, but said that negotiations were not yet taking place. He said that he expects to finalize the future of VoiceStream by the end of this year. It may be interesting to know if the ongoing re-branding of VoiceStream into T-Mobile will be put on hold to prevent a third potential re-branding exercise and waste of money in the T-Mobile effort.'"

Posted to the site on 23rd August 2002