Deutsche Telekom Q3 net income up 7 pct

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BERLIN (AP) — Deutsche Telekom AG said Thursday its third-quarter net income rose 7 percent as it remained focused on controlling costs and developing key markets in the U.S., Britain and Poland.

Telekom, based in Bonn, reported net income of €959 million ($1.4 billion) in the July-September period compared with €895 million a year earlier, which included the results for Greece's Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA

Revenue rose 5 percent to nearly €16.3 billion in the quarter compared with nearly €15.5 billion.

"We have continued the positive trend of the second quarter and have picked up the pace," Chief Executive Rene Obermann said. "We responded quickly and took effective steps in those markets we were concentrating on in the first quarter — the United Kingdom, the United States, and Poland."

Telekom said its business in Britain, T-Mobile UK, had stabilized and, in September, it began talks with France Telecom about setting up a joint venture between it and Orange. In the U.S., where T-Mobile USA operates, the sale of handsets on 3G networks and Internet access by subscribers both rose.

Telekom's Polish subsidiary, PTC, also turned the corner, taking on more subscribers and bringing in more revenue.

The company's efforts to cut costs — dubbed the Save for Service program — also bore fruit, increasing profitability across all of its segments in the third quarter. Since it was implemented in 2005, it has generated savings of some €5.4 billion.

Over the January-September period, however, Telekom's net income slid 84 percent to €356 million compared with €2.2 billion a year earlier. Revenue, though, was up 6 percent to €48.4 billion compared with €45.5 billion in the first nine months of 2008.

Despite the gains outside of Germany, Telekom's home market remained vexing, with revenue dipping in the third quarter as it lost more landline subscribers.