LONDON -- The third quarter of 2005 was the strongest quarter so far in the history of T-Mobile International. As such, the Deutsche Telekom subsidiary recorded an excellent close to the period from July to September.

A particularly pleasing development was the growth in the number of customers to 83.1 million: Around 530,000 new customers in Germany chose T-Mobile in the third quarter of the year, as well as 1,058 million in the United States and 258,000 in the United Kingdom.

The company is also in an excellent position with its financial figures: Compared to the same quarter last year, T-Mobile’s revenue increased by 10.6 percent to 7.6 billion. EBITDA was raised by 356 million to 2.7 billion..

Details on individual countries: T-Mobile Deutschland is successfully continuing its strategy of high-value growth. The German market leader increased its number of customers by 530,000 in the past quarter to 28.7 million. Of this customer growth, contract customers account for one third and prepaid customers two thirds; whereas accretion was achieved – in line with the strategy – with lower customer acquisition costs than in the prior year. These costs were reduced by EUR 16 per new customer compared with the third quarter of the prior year. Churn, EBITDA and the EBITDA margin (42.5 percent) were at the same level as in the prior year, despite the intensified competitive environment. Total revenue decreased slightly by 2.2 percent . This was the result of the decrease in low-margin revenues from terminal equipment. Service revenues (ARPU revenues) increased by 3.9 percent quarter-on-quarter, bringing them slightly above the figure for the prior year. A further positive development is that the proportion of customers choosing a card contract without a subsidized handset (SIM card only) is increasing. An example of this is the Relax Eco rates: Customers pay only half the monthly price for these minute-based packages, as they do not receive a handset with the contract. ARPU remained stable at EUR 23.

T-Mobile USA achieved an important milestone by surpassing the 20 million customer mark. By the end of September, T-Mobile USA served 20.3 million customers. Costumer growth therefore increased by approximately 4 million within one year. At the same time, customer acquisition costs were decreased considerably by EUR 28 compared to the same period in the previous year. T-Mobile USA increased its revenue by 26.4 percent year-on-year to EUR 3.1 billion and, at EUR 940 million, EBITDA was at the same level as the traditionally strong T-Mobile Deutschland figure for the first time. Concurrently, ARPU was boosted to EUR 42 compared to EUR 41 in the previous quarter.

T-Mobile UK is starting to see the first signs of sustained stabilization on the difficult UK market. Following negative net additions in the prior quarter, T-Mobile UK stabilized its customer base and added around 258,000 customers (incl. Virgin) to bring the total to 16.3 million.

The trend in ARPU-relevant revenue is now clearly on the rise again following the decreases in the first and second quarters of 2005. The decreases, which are the result of a cut in mobile termination charges by the British regulator, have now almost been compensated.

The EBITDA margin of 37 percent includes a positive effect of GBP 27 million of provisions relating to other periods for the so-called "council tax" which proved to be too high and were reversed.

The development of ARPU-relevant revenue in Austria and the Czech Republic was particularly positive, with growth of around 4 and 9 percent, respectively. Overall, the increase in Central and Eastern Europe was even greater, at 10 percent.

The EBITDA margin in Central and Eastern Europe was 46 percent in the third quarter, in Western Europe 38 percent and in the United States 30 percent, bringing the total for T-Mobile to 36 percent.

T-Mobile International AG