Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German
telecommunications company
A telecommunications company is a kind of electronic communications service provider, more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Many t ...
headquartered in
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
and the largest telecommunications provider in
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
by revenue. It was formed in 1995 when , a
state monopoly
In economics, a government monopoly or public monopoly is a form of coercive monopoly in which a government agency or government corporation is the sole provider of a particular good or service and competition is prohibited by law. It is a monopoly ...
at the time, was privatized and broken up. Since then, Deutsche Telekom has consistently featured among
''Fortune'' ''Magazine'''s top
Global 500 companies by revenue, with its ranking at number 79. In 2023, the company was ranked 41st in the
Forbes Global 2000
The ''Forbes'' Global 2000 is an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world, published by: sales, profit, assets and market value. The list has been published annually since 2003.
By country
Forbes Global 2000 as of 2023:
...
. The company operates several subsidiaries worldwide, including the mobile communications brand
T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...
. It is the world's
fifth-largest telecommunications company and biggest in Europe by revenue.
, the German government held a direct 14.5% stake in company stock and another 17.4% through the government bank
KfW. On 4th June 2024, the German government reduced its total shareholding to 27.8%. The company is a component of the
EURO STOXX 50 stock market index
In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an Index (economics), index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calcul ...
.
History
The was the German federal government
postal administration
This is a list of postal entities by country. It includes:
*The governmental authority responsible for postal matters.
*The Regulatory agency, regulatory authority for the postal sector. Postal regulation may include the establishment of postal ...
created in 1947 as a successor to the
Reichspost
''Reichspost'' (; "Imperial Mail") was the name of the postal service of Germany from 1866 to 1945.
''Deutsche Reichspost''
Upon the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the break-up of the German Confederation in the Peace of P ...
. It was also the major telephone company in
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
.
On 1 July 1989, as part of a post office reform, was split into three entities, one being Deutsche Telekom. On 1 January 1995, as part of another reform, Telekom became Deutsche Telekom AG, and was privatized in 1996. As such, it shares a common heritage with the other privatized companies,
Deutsche Post
(, ) is a brand of the DHL Group (listed as ), used for its domestic mail services in Germany. The services offered under the brand are those of a traditional mail service, making the brand the successor of the former state-owned mail monopoly ...
(DHL) and
Deutsche Postbank.
Deutsche Telekom was the monopoly
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...
(ISP) for
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
until its privatization in 1995, and the dominant ISP thereafter.
Until the early 21st century, Deutsche Telekom controlled almost all
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
access by individuals and small businesses in Germany, as they were one of the first German telecom units.
On 6 December 2001, Deutsche Telekom became the first official partner of the
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...
.
On 1 January 2005, Deutsche Telekom implemented a new company structure. The two organizational business units of T-Com and T-Online were merged into the Broadband/Fixed Network (BBFN)
strategic business unit
A strategic business unit (SBU) in business strategic management, is a profit center which focuses on product offering and market segment. SBUs typically have a discrete marketing plan, analysis of competition, and marketing campaign, even though ...
(T-Online merged with parent Deutsche Telekom in 2006). It provides around 40 million narrowband lines, over 9 million
broadband
In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...
lines, and has 14 million registered Internet customers.
In 2008, the structure was changed again. T-Online was separated from Deutsche Telekom and merged with T-Com to form the new unit T-Home. In September 2010,
Orange parent
France Télécom and
T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...
parent Deutsche Telekom merged their operations in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
to create the largest mobile network in Britain,
EE.
In April 2010, T-Mobile was merged with T-Home to form
Telekom Deutschland GmbH. This unit now handles all products and services aimed at private customers. In October 2012, Deutsche Telekom and Orange created a 50-50% joint venture named BuyIn for regrouping their procurement operations and benefiting from
economies of scale
In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of Productivity, output produced per unit of cost (production cost). A decrease in ...
.

In April 2013,
T-Mobile US
T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. Its majority shareholder and namesake is the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom. T-Mobile is the second largest wireless carrie ...
and
MetroPCS merged their operations in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. In February 2014, Deutsche Telekom acquired the remaining parts of its
T-Mobile Czech Republic
T-Mobile Czech Republic, a.s. is a Czech wireless network operator, owned by the German telecommunications provider Deutsche Telekom. T-Mobile is the largest mobile phone network operator in the Czech Republic. As of 31 December 2014, six mill ...
division for around €800 million. The size of the remaining stake was numbered at 40 percent.
In December 2014, it was announced that Deutsche Telekom were in talks with
BT Group
BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...
on the acquisition of EE, and part of the deal was to provide Deutsche Telekom a 12% stake and a seat on the board in the BT Group upon completion. BT Group announced agreement in February 2015 to acquire EE for £12.5 billion
and received regulatory approval from the
Competition and Markets Authority
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the principal competition regulator in the United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for promoting competitive markets and tackling unfair beh ...
on 15 January 2016. The transaction was completed on 29 January 2016.
In September 2015, Deutsche Telekom launched the "Puls tablet", a
Tablet computer
A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being computers ...
with
Android version 5.
In February 2016, at the
Mobile World Congress
MWC Barcelona (formerly but still commonly referred to as Mobile World Congress) is an annual trade show dedicated to the mobile communications industry.
The event is held in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain, at the Fira de Barcelona Gran ...
, in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, Deutsche Telekom jointly launched the
Telecom Infra Project
The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) was formed in 2016 as an engineering-focused, collaborative methodology for building and deploying global telecom network infrastructure, with the goal of enabling global access for all.
TIP is jointly steered by i ...
(TIP) with
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
,
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
,
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
,
Equinix,
SK Telecom
SK Telecom Co., Ltd., abbreviated as SKT ( or ) is a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator and former film distributor and is part of the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebols. It leads the local market with 50.5 perce ...
, and others, which builds on the
Open Compute Project model to accelerate innovation in the telecom industry.
Amid
concerns over Chinese involvement in 5G wireless networks in Europe, Deutsche Telekom temporarily put all deals to buy 5G network equipment on hold in 2019, as it awaited the resolution of a debate in Germany over whether to ban Chinese vendor
Huawei
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei" sometimes stylized as "HUAWEI"; ; zh, c=华为, p= ) is a Chinese multinational corporationtechnology company in Longgang, Shenzhen, Longgang, Shenzhen, Guangdong. Its main product lines include teleco ...
on security grounds.
In February 2020, Deutsche Telekom joined a new partnership called HAPS Alliance to promote the use of high-altitude vehicles in the Earth's stratosphere with the goal of eliminating the digital divide.
On April 1, 2020,
Sprint completed the
merger with T-Mobile US, making T-Mobile US the owner of Sprint and becoming its subsidiary until the Sprint brand is phased out. The merger also led
SoftBank Group
is a Japanese multinational investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services to customers in a m ...
, the then-owner of Sprint, to hold up to 24% of New T-Mobile's shares while Deutsche Telekom holds up to 43% of its shares. The remaining 33% is since held by public shareholders.
In September 2021, Deutsche Telekom sold
T-Mobile Netherlands for €5.1 billion to the investment companies
Apax Partners
Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of March 2024, the firm had raised and adv ...
and
Warburg Pincus.
In September 2022, Deutsche Telekom is expanding its activities in the field of
blockchain
The blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of Record (computer science), records (''blocks'') that are securely linked together via Cryptographic hash function, cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of th ...
technology. DT’s subsidiary,
Deutsche Telekom MMS provides the
Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (abbreviation: ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. It is open-s ...
Network with infrastructure in the form of
validation node
In general, a node is a localized swelling (a "knot") or a point of intersection (a vertex).
Node may refer to:
In mathematics
* Vertex (graph theory), a vertex in a mathematical graph
*Vertex (geometry), a point where two or more curves, lines ...
s.
In December 2023, Deutsche Telekom and Nokia with
Fujitsu began deploying a multivendor
Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN). The network is fully integrated into Deutsche Telekom's existing commercial network, including
5G AirScale compatible with Open RAN.
Finances
For the fiscal year 2017, Deutsche Telekom reported earnings of €3.5 billion, with an annual revenue of €74.9 billion, an increase of 2.5% over the previous fiscal cycle. Deutsche Telekom's shares traded at over €14 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at US$68.4 billion in November 2018.
The key trends for Deutsche Telekom are (as at the financial year ending December 31):
Operations
Deutsche Telekom also holds substantial shares in other telecom companies, including Central European subsidiaries
Slovak Telekom
Slovak Telekom is the convergent telco provider with the largest internet, fixed-line, digital TV, ICT and mobile services portfolio. The company is Subsidiary, wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG.
The Slovak Telekom Group consists ...
(
Slovakia
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
),
Magyar Telekom
Magyar Telekom Nyrt. (officially ''Magyar Telekom Távközlési Nyilvánosan Működő Részvénytársaság, Magyar Telekom Telecommunications Public Limited Company'' ) is one of the leading Hungarian telecommunications service provider com ...
(
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
). Furthermore,
Magyar Telekom
Magyar Telekom Nyrt. (officially ''Magyar Telekom Távközlési Nyilvánosan Működő Részvénytársaság, Magyar Telekom Telecommunications Public Limited Company'' ) is one of the leading Hungarian telecommunications service provider com ...
holds majority shares in
Makedonski Telekom
Makedonski Telekom AD () is a telecommunications company in North Macedonia with headquarters in Skopje. It is part of the Magyar Telekom Group, which is a fully consolidated subsidiary of international Deutsche Telekom Group.
It offers a range ...
(
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...
), and
Hrvatski Telekom
Hrvatski Telekom, also known as HT or Telekom, is a Croatian telecommunications company founded in 1998. Headquartered in Zagreb, it is majority-owned by Deutsche Telekom with a 53.5% stake and is publicly traded on the Zagreb Stock Exchange.
...
(
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
) holds majority shares in
Crnogorski Telekom
Crnogorski Telekom ("Montenegrin Telekom"; full legal name: Crnogorski Telekom a.d. Podgorica) is a Montenegrin telecommunications operator based in Podgorica. It is the largest telecommunications company in Montenegro and provides fixed-line, ...
(
Montenegro
, image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg
, coa_size = 80
, national_motto =
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map = Europe-Mont ...
), it also has significant shares in
HT Mostar (
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
).
DT also holds shares in the Hellenic telecommunication operator
OTE, which also have shares in several other companies like
Telekom Romania and the IT&C retailer Germanos. Deutsche Telekom also operates a wholesale division named International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS) that provides white label voice and data wholesale support services to large carriers.
OTE also used to have shares in
One Telecommunications operating in Albania. Prior to its sale it was known as Telekom Albania using DT's logo and marketing strategies.
Operation of telephone companies involves billing-software or "BSS". Deutsche Telekom's
T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...
billing was performed on
Israeli-backend systems until 2014, when
Ericsson
(), commonly known as Ericsson (), is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one ...
was selected to replace the Israeli backend.
T-Systems

T-Systems sells worldwide products and services to medium to very large business customers. The focus is on the marketing of complex services and industry solutions.
Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier
Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier
is formerly known as Deutsche Telekom International Sales and Solutions. It is an international wholesale arm of Deutsche Telekom. The products include Voice Termination, Ethernet, IP-Transit, Mobile and Roaming as well as In-flight Internet Access for the aviation industry. It operates a
Tier-1 network.
European Aviation Network
Together with Inmarsat and Nokia, Deutsche Telekom develops a hybrid network for faster internet access on board the planes in Europe. It is a combination of data transmission via Inmarsat Satellite and Deutsche Telekom's LTE ground stations throughout the European continent.
See also
*
List of telecommunications regulatory bodies
Legal regulatory bodies that govern telecommunications systems in different countries are as follows.
This list contains bodies ensuring effective regulatory role in a territory which is not necessarily a state, but is listed as "territory" or " ...
*
Deutsche Telekom eavesdropping controversy
Notes
References
{{Authority control
German brands
Telecommunications companies of Germany
Telecommunications companies established in 1995
Companies based in Bonn
German companies established in 1995
1996 initial public offerings
Companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
Multinational companies headquartered in Germany
Companies in the Euro Stoxx 50
Government-owned companies of Germany
Tier 1 networks
Companies in the TecDAX
Companies in the DAX index
Softbank portfolio companies