Green light in 200 towns and cities - Requirements of regulatory authority clearly exceeded - Ricke underlines significance of debt reduction - Deutsche Telekom is a driving force of innovation and investment Deutsche Telekom will begin the commercial market launch of the new mobile communications standard from the third quarter of 2003. Right from the start, around 200 towns and cities in Germany will be equipped with the technical systems. This clearly exceeds the minimum coverage of 25 percent of the German population as required by the Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Posts. With this announcement at the 12 Internationales Presse Kolloquium (IPK) in Berlin, Deutsche Telekom underlined once more its leading role on the domestic and international telecommunications market.
"I am firmly convinced that we will be just as successful with UMTS as we have been in the past with other innovative technologies and standards", emphasized Kai-Uwe Ricke, Chairman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom at the IPK. "In mobile communications, UMTS broadband technology will bring about a quantum leap similar to that experienced with the fixed network-based rapid Internet access."
"The first mobile multimedia products based on the conventional mobile communications standard have demonstrated that the demand for broadband mobile communications is there", said the Federal Minister of Economics and Labor Wolfgang Clement at the opening of this year's IPK. "UMTS will let us exploit this potential to the full. A leading position in the field of broadband Internet and UMTS will have a positive pact on the German economy as a whole."
Within the space of only two year, Deutsche Telekom has sold 3.15 million T-DSL lines, developing the innovative T-DSL technology into a mass market product and making Germany the number one on the European telecommunications market. With new, innovative T-DSL product, the Deutsche Telekom Group is aiming to have four million customers by the end of 2003. On particular success made the leap to the next Internet generation possible: It has been possible to overcome the emphasis on text. Still images, sound and video clips at CD quality open up new content structures for the Internet and tap new customer and user groups.
Debt reduction and growth At the same time, consistent debt reduction is one of the primary goals of the restructured Board of Management. Net debt is to be reduced by the end of 2003 to a figure which corresponds to three times the Group EBITDA expected for the 2003 financial year. Deutsche Telekom has made considerable progress towards this goal in the past few weeks and months: The placement of 120 million T-Online shares, for example, with a transaction value of around EUR 730 million, real estate sales amounting to approximately EUR 1.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2002 alone and the recently completed sale of the remaining six cable regions for EUR 1.725 billion plus the possibility of extra payments later, depending on the development of the value of the companies sold.
"We have, I believe, largely achieved credibility on the capital market in respect of our new aims. Just as we have in respect of our determination to take the necessary action", said Kai-Uwe Ricke, explaining the company's strategy.
Despite the considerably lower volume of investment of between EUR 6.7 billion and EUR 7.7 billion for this financial year, Deutsche Telekom will continue to be one of the largest investors in Germany. As such, the Group is underlining the significant role of the telecommunications sector in influencing domestic and international investment decisions and is laying the foundation for new services, the further development of existing offers and the company's power to innovate.