T-Mobile buoyant thanks to US subscribers

Americans and British do some mobile big spending while Germans keep their hands in pockets

T-Mobile International has posted strong second quarter results, with both revenue and subscriber numbers showing growth. The group's revenue increased to E10.9bn for the quarter, with total subscriber numbers climbing to around 57 million – a 19 per cent year-on-year rise. Worldwide pre-tax profits also rose by 27 per cent to E3.3bn. While in Britain the UK customer growth has not quite reached the dizzy heights of its American counterpart, T-Mobile UK has succeeded in parting its customers from their money with more success than before: average revenue per user (ARPU) rose by £3 over the first half of the year, with the average T-mobile customer now shelling out £20, leading to a half year revenue of E2.1bn. Pre-tax profits in the UK rose by 25 per cent to E545m. Despite the bumper earnings, a relatively small percentage of UK users are on contracts – just 19 per cent – but the telco announced it would be looking to change that in the coming months. But it is T-Mobile's US arm that's leading the group's better-than-expected results, with revenue from the region totalling E3.4bn for the first half of the year, a rise of 23 per cent from last year. The still-developing mobile market across the pond allowed T-mobile to attract over half a million more customers and, after pursuing a strategy of lowering customer acquisition costs, T-Mobile's US subsidiary has been making a substantial contribution to the company coffers. On the Deutsche-Telecom owned company's home soil, results were more mixed: second quarter ARPU was down compared to the corresponding period last year, but the company's German business still turned in a healthy profit of after E1.7bn, after growing its customer base to over 25 million.