German Tribune

Bonn-based telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom has reported first-quarter earnings that beat their analysts’ estimates, thanks to better-than-expected performance by its US subsidiary T-Mobile.

Deutsche Telekom’s revenue slipped 1.1 per cent to 14.43 billion euros, but earnings were at 4.48 billion euros ($5.8 billion), higher than analysts’ average projection of 4.4 billion euros.

Net earnings halved to 238 million euros, mainly due to a charge of nearly 500 million euros related to job cuts.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ)’s late Monday report, with AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile having fallen through, the two companies have recently filed for the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s approval for the transfer of $1 billion in wireless airwaves from AT&T to T-Mobile.

After lobbying intensely for months for its proposed $39billion takeover of its smaller US rival T-Mobile, AT&T announced on Monday that it has decided to scrap the T-Mobile merger deal because it was unsuccessful in overcoming stiff competition from the government.

The scrapping of the deal means that, in accordance with the terms of the March-announced merger, AT&T will pay T-Mobile's parent Deutsche Telekom $4 billion in cash and wireless spectrum access as a break-up charge.