T-Mobile goodwill cut by €1.5bn

O2 shows the way...

Deutsche Telekom has announced it is writing down the value of the UK arm of its T-Mobile business by €1.5bn.

According to Deutsche Telekom, the decrease in the company's goodwill was prompted by the recent acquisition of O2 by Spain's Telefonica.

It said: "The takeover of the mobile communications company O2 by Telefonica generated an indicator of the market price of T-Mobile UK for the impairment test."

The news comes just days after Vodafone announced it was cutting up to £28bn from the goodwill of its operations in Europe and Germany.

T-Mobile announced the writedown as part of its fourth quarter results. The operator increased customer numbers by nine per cent.

However, T-Mobile saw UK revenue decrease, year on year – from €4.3bn in 2004 to €4.2bn in 2005 - which Deutsche Telekom attributed to a "tough market".