Highlights in the first quarter of 2019

Board of management

The former Board member responsible for Human Resources (CHRO), Dr. Christian P. Illek, became the new CFO as of January 1, 2019. Birgit Bohle joined the Board of Management on January 1, 2019 as the Board member responsible for Human Resources as successor to Dr. Illek. Thorsten Langheim became a member of the Board of Management at Deutsche Telekom AG as of January 1, 2019, taking up the role of head of the newly created Board department responsible for USA and Group Development. Deutsche Telekom AG thus has had nine Board departments since the start of 2019.

Corporate transactions

On November 27, 2018, the European Commission unconditionally approved the acquisition of telecommunications provider Tele2 Netherlands Holding N.V. by T-Mobile Netherlands Holding B.V. and the transaction was consummated on January 2, 2019. Tele2 Netherlands has been included in Deutsche Telekom’s consolidated financial statements as a fully consolidated subsidiary since the acquisition date. This transaction will establish a stronger, more sustainable provider of convergent fixed-network and mobile services on the Dutch market.

On January 15, 2019, OTE concluded an agreement concerning the sale of its stake in Telekom Albania to the Bulgarian company Albania Telecom Invest AD for a purchase price of EUR 50 million. The transaction is subject to approval by the authorities as well as other closing conditions and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019.

Investments in networks

T-Mobile Austria launches 5G network. At the spectrum auction in Austria, T-Mobile Austria purchased 110 MHz of spectrum covering all 12 regions (11 packages of 10 MHz in each of them) for a total of EUR 57 million. The company is now in a position to roll out the next-generation communications standard across all of Austria. The auction ended in early March 2019 and resulted in 438 from a total of 468 spectrum packages (39 packages of 10 MHz in each of the twelve regions) being auctioned for a total price of around EUR 188 million. Using the acquired spectrum, T-Mobile Austria activated the first 5G base stations on March 26, 2019, primarily in rural regions. Additional 5G stations will be connected to the mobile network over the course of the further build-out. T-Mobile Austria plans to invest around EUR 1 billion in total through 2021 to guarantee that Austria has a powerful mobile and fixed-network broadband infrastructure. For more details, please refer to our media information.

Drilling, splicing, and microtrenching: network build-out in 2019. This year, we plan to install some 2,000 new cell sites for the mobile network to increase the number of connections, predominantly along freeways and rail routes. Our fiber-optic network currently extends over around 500,000 kilometers and is expected to grow by some 60,000 kilometers in 2019. Already top speeds of up to 250 Mbit/s were available to around 20 million households at the end of the first quarter. Preparations for the launch of are also in full swing. The 5G technology is already operational: Europe’s first 5G antennas have been transmitting under real conditions in our network in Berlin City since May 2018. They are the foundation for Germany’s commercial 5G network. More than 50 antennas integrated in the live network are already up and running in the heart of the capital. We plan to add further 5G test sites in German cities throughout 2019 – starting with Darmstadt in the first quarter. The first 5G antennas are also in operation in our networks in Hungary and Croatia. For more details, please refer to our media information.

Nearshore rollout: first tranche successfully completed. VDSL2 technology with speeds of up to 250 Mbit/s has been rolled out in the vicinity of 3,152 local exchanges (nearshore areas) in 2,855 local networks. Around 1.7 million households now have access to faster internet connections. By 2020, all 7,516 of Germany’s nearshore areas will have been upgraded. We plan to lay around 6,000 kilometers of in 7,122 nearshore areas and install more than 30,000 new multi-service access nodes (MSANs). Some six million households, equivalent to around 14 percent of our broadband coverage, will benefit from the build-out. For more details, please refer to our media information.

Innovations and partnerships

Holistic approach to climate protection – scaled-down SIM card creates less plastic waste. Taking responsibility for a climate-friendly society is a central field of activity in our CR strategy. We are significantly reducing the amount of plastic used for selling our and making a major contribution to waste prevention. By cutting the size of the SIM punch card in half, they will no longer be sold in the standard credit card-style format. This step reduces the amount of plastic waste generated in Germany by 17.5 tons. We are the first telecommunications company in Germany to go down this route and avoid using plastic to the largest possible extent. By 2021, we will also procure all of the electricity the Group needs from renewable sources and reduce other emissions from gas, oil, and other sources of energy. These measures are expected to lower our CO2 emissions by 90 percent versus 2017 by the year 2030. For more details, please refer to our media information.

Fiber-optic joint venture with EWE. In March 2019, we signed an agreement with energy and telecommunications company EWE to establish a joint venture called Glasfaser NordWest. It aims to provide high-speed internet to up to 1.5 million households and business locations in areas of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Bremen on the basis of the technology. We plan to invest up to EUR 2 billion over a period of around ten years. The transaction has yet to be approved by the German antitrust authority (Bundeskartellamt). For more details, please refer to our media information.

Connectivity up close at MWC. Our booth at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with the theme #TAKEPART showcased the incredible potential of 5G. Spread over an area of 1,200 square meters, consumers and industry representatives alike experienced demonstrations live and up close in a host of different application fields – all on the basis of our networks and technologies. The key message: The network of the future is already opening up a fascinating array of opportunities. As a pioneer, driver, and enabler of the digital transformation, we are laying the foundation that will allow everyone to participate in the new digital world. We welcomed a record number of visitors to our booth at the telecommunication industry’s biggest international exhibition. For more details, please refer to our media information.

Virtual data centers on Amazon Web Services. T-Systems and VMware are joining forces to bring together the private cloud of a company with the public cloud of Amazon Web Services (AWS). The agreement was signed at MWC Barcelona in February 2019. VMware is a global leader in cloud infrastructure, while AWS offers the largest public cloud. With our new managed service VMware Cloud on AWS, companies can access the cloud faster, modernize their data centers, and enhance IT efficiency. They can quickly expand their data centers by adding a virtual data center in the public cloud, thus rapidly and cost-effectively increasing IT resources across the globe without having to invest in their own data centers. For more details, please refer to our media information.

Corporate customer deals

gkv informatik hands over the care of its IT systems to T-Systems. gkv informatik has signed an agreement with T-Systems on the operation of IT billing systems for its customers in the health insurance industry. The company provides IT services for health insurance providers with around 18 million customers insured under the statutory healthcare system. The new deal comprises the operation of the company’s entire IT infrastructure, including data center and storage services, as well as server operations for central workstation services. As such, it covers the processing of particularly sensitive healthcare-related data that is subject to extended statutory protection requirements. T-Systems already manages the IT service provider’s data network. The contract for a volume in the mid-three-digit-million range will run for six years. For more details, please refer to our media information.

Awards

The illustration below shows the main awards received in the first quarter of 2019. For details on more awards, please go to www.telekom.com/media.

Major awards in the first quarter of 2019

Major awards in the first quarter of 2019 (graphic)
5G
New communications standard, which offers data rates in the gigabit range, converges fixed-network and mobile communications, and supports the Internet of Things – rollout starting 2020.
5G
New communications standard, which offers data rates in the gigabit range, converges fixed-network and mobile communications, and supports the Internet of Things – rollout starting 2020.
Vectoring
Vectoring is a noise-canceling technology that removes the electro-magnetic interference between lines, enabling higher bit rates. However, in order to cancel noise, the operator must have control over all lines. This means that other operators cannot install their own technology at the cable distribution boxes.
Optical fiber
Channel for optical data transmission.
SIM card - Subscriber Identification Module Card
Chip card that is inserted into a cell phone to identify it in the mobile network. Deutsche Telekom counts its customers by the number of SIM cards activated and not churned. Customer totals also include the SIM cards with which machines can communicate automatically with one another (M2M cards). The churn rate is determined and reported based on the local markets of the respective countries.
FTTH - Fiber To The Home
In telecommunications, FTTH means that the fiber-optic cable is terminated right in the user’s home or apartment.