Deutsche Telekom AG, Europe's biggest phone company, plans to spend 2.1 billion euros (US$2.7 billion) over three years to build a high-speed mobile network in the US.
By adding services such as video and game downloads, T-Mobile, the fourth-largest US cellular-phone company, plans to boost its customer count by least 50 percent to between 35 million and 40 million by 2015, Deutsche Telekom chief financial officer Karl-Gerhard Eick said in a conference call on Friday.
T-Mobile USA last month spent US$4.2 billion on wireless licenses. Deutsche Telekom bought T-Mobile USA, formerly called VoiceStream Wireless Corp, in 2001 for US$35 billion.
"Payback for the investments will take not months, not years, but tens of years," said Boris Boehm, a fund manager at Nordinvest in Hamburg, which oversees US$7.6 billion, including Deutsche Telekom shares. "T-Mobile needs the licenses and the network just to keep its market position, not even to grow it."
T-Mobile USA has been adding US wireless customers at a slower pace than bigger rivals Cingular Wireless LLC and Verizon Wireless, partly because of a lack of wireless spectrum. The US unit overtook the German mobile-phone division in 2004 as Deutsche Telekom's largest source of wireless revenue.
"I'm convinced this is money well spent," chief executive officer Kai-Uwe Ricke said at a news conference in New York on Friday.
Deutsche Telekom plans to "maximize revenue market share" in the US and make T-Mobile USA "the largest single company within the group," he said.
In the first half of this year, the US unit accounted for 22 percent of Deutsche Telekom's sales, up from 16 percent in all of 2004. Deutsche Telekom's merged broadband and fixed-line phone unit is the largest division, contributing 41 percent of the company's revenue in the first half.
Network construction in the US will begin this quarter, with most of the work scheduled to be completed next year and in 2008.
T-Mobile is the only major US carrier that doesn't have a third-generation mobile-phone network, which can transmit services such as video downloads.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique