T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom seems to be a pretty popular topic lately. It’s been widely known for a while that DT is looking to get out of the US market and focus on their home market of Europe. However, now it looks like they aren’t in a huge rush to get out of the US. According to a report out of Reuters’ this afternoon, they are citing sources “familiar with the matter”, that Deutsche Telekom sees their position in the US behind AT&T, Verizon and Sprint as “limiting long-term profitability”. While T-Mobile’s spot in the US wireless industry is one reason for DT wanting to sell, another is the growing competition in Europe. They are beginning to see lots of competition from cable companies and they are wanting to expand across Eastern Europe.
Tim Hoettges, is the new CEO over at Deutsche Telekom, and he stated that he is aware of the potential regulatory stumbling blocks for Sprint/Softbank to buy T-Mobile, and that he doesn’t want a repeat of the AT&T failed buyout back in 2011. We’ve already reported many times that the FCC and Department of Justice are not too keen on the 3rd and 4th US carriers merging together. And that they have voiced concerns over the potential merger, with reducing the number of major network operators in the US.
However we do have good news for T-Mobile fans out there. Thanks to John Leger, and Co., with all the hard work they put into Magenta since becoming CEO back in late 2012, Deutsche Telekom isn’t looking to get out of the US quickly. According to Reuters, DT is willing to wait a couple of years. Which surprising, and definitely due to T-Mobile adding over 1.6 million customers in Q4. While you may not agree with what T-Mobile’s CEO is doing to bash his competition, he’s doing something right. As T-Mobile went from losing nearly a million customers each quarter to putting up numbers like Verizon. That’s quite the turn around, especially in just a year.
So Deutsche Telekom is still looking to sell T-Mobile, but it’s not in a rush like they had been before. But who is going to take T-Mobile off of their hands? Vodafone? Dish Network? It”s going to be tough for AT&T, Verizon or Sprint to do it.