Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom AG
Type Aktiengesellschaft
Traded as FWBDTE, OTC Markets GroupDTEGY
Industry Telecommunications
Founded 1995 (Privatization)
1996 (Flotation)
Headquarters Bonn, Germany
Area served Worldwide
Key people René Obermann (CEO and Chairman of the executive board), Ulrich Lehner (Chairman of the supervisory board)
Products Fixed-line and mobile telephony, broadband and fixed-line internet services, IT and network services
Revenue 62.42 billion (2010)[1]
Operating income €5.505 billion (2010)[1]
Profit €1.695 billion (2010)[1]
Total assets €127.81 billion (end 2010)[1]
Total equity €43.03 billion (end 2010)[1]
Employees 246,780 (end 2010)[1]
Divisions Group Headquarters and Shared Services
Germany (fixed and mobile)
Europe (fixed and mobile)
United States (mobile)
Systems Solutions (T-Systems)
Subsidiaries Everything Everywhere (UK) (50% Stake with France Telecom)
Website www.telekom.com
References: [2]

Deutsche Telekom AG (abbreviated DTAG, English: German Telecom) is a telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Europe. Deutsche Telekom was formed in 1996 as the former state-owned monopoly Deutsche Bundespost was privatized. As of June 2008, the German government still holds a 15% stake in company stock directly, and another 17% through the government bank KfW.

The former CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke was ousted by the board of the company because of slumping sales and the flight of customers to cheaper competitors. More than 1.5 million customers changed to rival companies during 2005 and 2006 and as a result, Deutsche Telekom laid off more than 30,000 workers.[3] The new CEO was announced on November 12, 2006 after a long-night board session: René Obermann, the former CEO of T-Mobile International.[4]

The predecessor of Ricke, Ron Sommer, chairman of Deutsche Telekom between 1995 and 2002, was ousted because of the drop in the share price of the company in 2002.[5] At the height of the dot-com bubble, the share was valued at over €100 but fell significantly to about €12/share during a couple of months.[5] Sommer said that "he had some opinion-based difficulties between him and board of the Telekom".

As part of the Deutsche Telekom eavesdropping controversy, charges were filed against the company for allegedly abusing call data to snoop on supervisory board members and journalists.[6][7][8] In October 2008 the company confirmed that personal information of 17 million mobile phone customers had been copied.[9][10]

Contents

History

The Deutsche Bundespost was the federal German government post office created in 1947 as a successor to the Reichspost, and was the largest employer in Germany. On July 1, 1989 as part of a post office reform, Deutsche Bundespost was split into 3 entities, one being Deutsche Bundespost Telekom. On January 1, 1995 as part of another reform, Deutsche Bundespost Telekom became Deutsche Telekom AG, and was privatized in 1996. As such, it shares a common heritage with the other privatized Deutsche Bundespost companies, Deutsche Post (DHL) and Deutsche Postbank.

Deutsche Telekom was the monopoly Internet Service Provider (ISP) for the German Internet until its privatization in 1995, and the dominant ISP thereafter.[11] Until the 21st century, Deutsche Telekom controlled almost all Internet access by individuals and small businesses in Germany.[11]

Holdings

All subsidiaries of Deutsche Telekom have names starting with "T-".

A new Group structure was introduced on January 1, 2005, Deutsche Telekom has merged the two organizational business units of T-Com and T-Online into the Broadband/Fixed Network (BBFN) strategic business area. With around 40 million narrowband lines, over 9 million broadband lines and 14 million registered Internet customers, the Broadband/Fixed Network business area is one of the largest providers in Europe. R&D is now driven by Deutsche Telekom Laboratories (T-Labs).

Deutsche Telekom also holds substantial shares in other telecom companies, including Central European subsidiaries Slovak Telekom (Slovakia), Magyar Telekom (Hungary), and T-Hrvatski Telekom (Croatia), which are now fully consolidated into T-Com/T-Home. Furthermore, Magyar Telekom holds majority shares in Makedonski Telekom (Macedonia), and T-Crnogorski Telekom (Montenegro) all of which have also been rebranded and included under the T-Com/T-Home umbrella. DT also holds shares in in the Hellenic telecommunication operator OTE, which also have shares in several other companies like the mobile operators Cosmote Greece, Cosmote Romania, Globul Bulgaria, AMC Albania, the IT&C retailer Germanos and the Romanian telecommunication operator Romtelecom.

On September 8, 2009 Orange and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom announced they were in advanced talks to merge their UK operations to create the largest mobile operator with 37% of the market. It is unclear the future of either brand when such deal is completed in November 2009.[12]

Facilities

A list of transmission facilities follows.

TV Towers/Telecommunication towers

The following facilities are free standing TV Towers - some of which have publicly accessible observation decks.

Guyed masts for FM, directional radio and TV

Transmission facilities for long- and mediumwave

Transmitters for non-broadcasting use

Transmission facilities for shortwave

Aerial testing sites

Facilities for satellite communication

Acquisitions

2001

2007

2008

2010

Music in television advertisements

Telekom AG promoted the career of Ella Larsson,[13] by featuring her first song, entitled "Lara's Song", in their television advertisement during the winter of 2008.[14]

The company also promote songs from many other musicians, which are available to download for free from the Telekom AG official website.

List of Songs

References

External links