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.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) is set to issue sea and land warnings for Tropical Storm Krathon as projections showed that the tropical storm could strengthen into a typhoon as it approaches Taiwan proper, the CWA said yesterday. The sea warning is scheduled to take effect this morning and the land warning this evening, it said. The storm formed yesterday morning and in the evening reached a point 620 nautical miles (1,148km) southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, moving west-southwest at 4 kph as it strengthened, the CWA said. Its radius measured between 220km and 250km, it added. Krathon is projected
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