Catenaa, Saturady, May 23, 2026-Deutsche Telekom raised its full-year financial outlook after another strong quarter from T-Mobile US helped offset currency pressure and weaker growth across parts of Europe.
The German telecom group now expects adjusted EBITDA AL to reach €47.5 billion this year, slightly above its earlier forecast of €47.4 billion.
The company also said free cash flow AL is now expected to exceed €19.8 billion rather than simply meet the target.
The upgrade followed stronger-than-expected earnings and customer growth from T-Mobile US, which continues driving most of Deutsche Telekom’s global performance.
US Business Dominates
Deutsche Telekom reported first-quarter group revenue of €29.9 billion, up 4.7% organically from a year earlier.
Adjusted EBITDA AL rose 7.5% to €11.5 billion. Still, a weaker US dollar sharply reduced reported growth figures compared with last year. Reported revenue increased only 0.4%, while reported earnings rose 2%.
Chief Executive Tim Höttges said the company remained resilient despite geopolitical and currency pressures affecting global markets. T-Mobile US accounted for more than 67% of group revenue during the quarter.
Bloomberg reported last month that Deutsche Telekom has explored the possibility of fully merging with T-Mobile US.
German Business Mixed
Inside Germany, Deutsche Telekom’s mobile business continued expanding.
Total mobile customers increased to 75.3 million from 69.8 million a year earlier. Much of the growth came from prepaid subscribers, which rose to 47.4 million. Contract mobile customers climbed 4.2% to 27.9 million. The fixed broadband division showed mixed performance. Fibre customers rose sharply to 2.2 million from 1.6 million last year. Fibre penetration improved to 17.1%.
Copper Decline Continues
Despite fibre expansion, Deutsche Telekom still lost about 3,000 broadband customers overall during the quarter because of ongoing declines in legacy copper-based services.
Service revenue inside Germany edged higher to €5.6 billion. Adjusted EBITDA AL from the domestic market rose 2.5% organically to €2.7 billion. Other European operations and the company’s Systems Solutions division also posted moderate revenue and earnings gains.
The quarter also highlighted the growing effect of currency movements on European telecom firms with large US exposure.
Last year, a stronger dollar boosted Deutsche Telekom’s reported revenue growth to 6.5%. That currency support faded this year as the dollar weakened.
Still, analysts said the company’s ownership stake in T-Mobile US continues shielding Deutsche Telekom from slower growth in traditional European telecom markets.
Industry observers expect the US mobile business to remain Deutsche Telekom’s largest earnings engine as competition intensifies across European fibre and broadband markets.
