Deutsche Telekom AG reported third-quarter net income rose 7 percent as it remained focused on controlling costs and developing key markets in the U.S., Britain and Poland. Telekom, based in Bonn, on Thursday reported net income of euro959 million ($1.4 billion) in the July-September period compared with euro895 million a year earlier. This quarter's figure includes results for Greece's Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA. Revenue rose 5 percent to nearly euro16.3 billion in the quarter compared with nearly euro15.5 billion. "We have continued the positive trend of the second quarter and have picked up the pace," Chief Executive Rene Obermann said. "We responded quickly and took effective steps in those markets we were concentrating on in the first quarter _ the United Kingdom, the United States, and Poland." Investors agreed, pushing Deutsche Telekom shares nearly 2.2 percent higher to euro9.48 in Frankfurt morning trading. Telekom said its business in Britain, T-Mobile UK, had stabilized and, in September, it began talks with France Telecom about setting up a joint venture between it and Orange. In the U.S., where T-Mobile USA operates, the sale of handsets on 3G networks and Internet access by subscribers both rose. Telekom's Polish subsidiary, PTC, also turned the corner, taking on more subscribers and bringing in more revenue. The company's efforts to cut costs _ dubbed the Save for Service program _ also bore fruit, increasing profitability across all of its segments in the third quarter. Since it was implemented in 2005, it has generated savings of some euro5.4 billion. Over the January-September period, however, Telekom's net income slid 84 percent to euro356 million compared with euro2.2 billion a year earlier. Revenue, though, was up 6 percent to euro48.4 billion compared with euro45.5 billion in the first nine months of 2008. Despite the gains outside of Germany, Telekom's home market remained vexing, with revenue dipping in the third quarter as it lost more landline subscribers. Revenue was down 2 percent to euro6.5 billion and pretax earnings were down 3 percent to euro2.5 billion. Continued... |