Deutsche Telekom

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Deutsche Telekom

DTAG corporate headquarters, Bonn

Deutsche Telekom AG (, , ) (English translation: German Telecom) (abbreviated DTAG) is a telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Germany and in the European Union.^[1]

Deutsche Telekom was formed in 1996 as the former state-owned monopoly Deutsche Bundespost was privatized. As of June 2008, the German government still holds a 15% stake in company stock directly, and another 17% through the government bank KfW.

The former CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke was ousted by the board of the company because of slumping sales and the flight of customers to cheaper competitors. More than 1.5 million customers changed to rival companies during 2005 and 2006 and as a result, Deutsche Telekom laid off more than 30,000 workers.^[2] The new CEO was announced on November 12 2006 after a long-night board session: René Obermann, the former CEO of T-Mobile International.^[3]

The predecessor of Ricke, Ron Sommer, chairman of Deutsche Telekom between 1995 and 2002, was ousted because of the drop in the share price of the company in 2002.^[4] At the height of the dot-com bubble, the share was valued at over ?100 but fell significantly to about ?12/share during a couple of months.^[4] Sommer said that "he had some opinion-based difficulties between him and board of the Telekom".

Charges were filed against the company for allegedly abusing call data.^[5]^[6]^[7] In October 2008 the company confirmed, that personal information of 17 million mobile phone customers has been stolen.^[8]^[9]

Holdings
Facilities

TV Towers/Telecommunication towers
Guyed masts for FM, directional radio and TV
Transmission facilities for long- and mediumwave
Transmitters for non-broadcasting use
Transmission facilities for shortwave
Aerial testing sites
Facilities for satellite communication
Acquisitions

References
External links

Holdings

All subsidiaries of Deutsche Telekom have names starting with "T-".

T-Home (formerly T-Com), a legacy telephone and fixed network carrier and IPTV operator
- T-Online, an internet service provider (ISP)
T-Mobile, a mobile phone provider
T-Systems, a business division focused on providing to large customers

A new Group structure was introduced on January 1, 2005, Deutsche Telekom has merged the two organizational business units of T-Com and T-Online into the Broadband/Fixed Network (BBFN) strategic business area. With around 40 million narrowband lines, over 9 million broadband lines and 14 million registered Internet customers, the Broadband/Fixed Network business area is one of the largest providers in Europe. R&D is now driven by Deutsche Telekom Laboratories (T-Labs).

Deutsche Telekom also holds substantial shares in other telecom companies, including Central European subsidiaries T-Slovak Telekom (Slovakia), Magyar Telekom (Hungary), and T-Hrvatski Telekom (Croatia), which are now fully consolidated into T-Com/T-Home. Furthermore, Magyar Telekom holds majority shares in Orbitel (Bulgaria), Combridge (Romania), Makedonski Telekom (Macedonia), and T-Crnogorski Telekom (Montenegro) all of which have also been rebranded and included under the T-Com/T-Home umbrella.