{"id":551385,"date":"2007-01-28T20:22:34","date_gmt":"2007-01-28T20:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/551385-millions-jump-fixed-line-ship.html"},"modified":"2007-01-28T20:22:34","modified_gmt":"2007-01-28T20:22:34","slug":"millions-jump-fixed-line-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/551385-millions-jump-fixed-line-ship.html","title":{"rendered":"Millions jump fixed-line ship"},"content":{"rendered":"

It said operating profit, as measured by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), would be \u20ac19bn ($24.5bn) compared with its previous prediction of between \u20ac19.7bn and \u20ac20.2bn. <\/font><\/p>\n

The group was revising expectations downwards "in accordance with the extremely tough domestic competitive environment and the recent development in foreign exchange rates", it said in a statement. <\/font><\/p>\n

It is the second time in six months that it has been forced to lower its outlook and reflects a problem faced by many former state monopolies – the steady degradation of their traditional base of fixed-line customers. <\/font><\/p>\n

Deutsche Telekom has long been losing fixed-line clients to low-cost competitors, mobile operators and internet-based systems such as Skype, but the 2006 figures confirm the trend with 2.3 people million jumping ship. <\/font><\/p>\n

T-mobile growing<\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

The group could count on 41.2 million fixed-line and internet customers in late 2005, but just one year later the figure was 38.96 million. <\/font><\/p>\n

Deutsche Telekom said its fixed-line sector, called T-Com, "will continue to play an active role in the expected continued tough pricing competition". <\/font><\/p>\n

New service and marketing initiatives were being introduced to bolster the business and pre-tax earnings for the sector will therefore be slashed by \u20ac800m in 2007 compared with previous forecasts. <\/font><\/p>\n

The traditionally buoyant mobile phone unit, T-Mobile, will suffer from foreign exchange developments, the company said, prompting it to cut its pre-tax earnings predictions by \u20ac200m. <\/font><\/p>\n

T-Mobile signed up 8.6 million new customers last year, taking its total customer numbers in Europe and the United States to 106.4 million. <\/font><\/p>\n

‘Can’t work miracles’<\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

However the US arm of the business will see its profits hit by the current strength of the euro. <\/font><\/p>\n

Revenue was expected to be "moderate" and dividends to shareholders would be \u20ac0.72 per share for 2006, the same level as in 2005. <\/font><\/p>\n

Official figures for 2006 will be published on March 1. <\/font><\/p>\n

The shift in technological challenges within the sector prompted Deutsche Telekom to name Rene Obermann, the former head of its mobile phone division, as chief executive to replace Kai-Uwe Ricke last November. <\/font><\/p>\n

But soon after his appointment, Obermann warned he could not "work miracles" in the face of intense competition.<\/font><\/p>\n

Comments<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, the biggest telecoms company in Europe, on Sunday lowered its 2007 earnings forecast after revealing it lost 2.3 million fixed-line customers last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}