T-Mobile Ger., US fortunes

The German division of T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom, received a substantial boost from the iPhone in its third financial quarter, according to a results report. T-Mobile Deutschland is said to have gained 271,000 net subscribers in Q3, a full 82 percent better than in the same period of 2007. The company describes the iPhone 3G as a "significant driver" of new subscriptions, and notes that it was "in extremely high demand" during the July launch phase. 401,000 German subscribers were recorded in all, and Deutsche Telekom's total net income for the quarter was $1.52 billion versus last year's $1.37 billion.

Part of this derives from the health of T-Mobile USA, which drew in $5.5 billion in raw revenue, a 12.5 percent jump over Q3 2007. Deutsche Telekom cites its G1 phone, the first based on Google's Android platform, as producing an "unusually large amount of interest" in subscribing to T-Mobile, helping to net 670,000 new customers. At the same time however this was significantly less than the 2007 figure of 857,000, and roughly on par with Q2 2008, a factor being blamed on high levels of subscriber churn.

By Electronista Staff