Deutsche Telekom’s Two-Speed Reality: Fibre Milestones, US Earnings Surge, and a Striking Contradiction

Deutsche Telekom shares drop 14% amid labor disputes and wage demands, even as EBITDA hits €44.2B and T-Mobile US posts strong Q1 results.

The numbers tell a story of operational excellence. The share price tells a story of deep unease. For Deutsche Telekom, the gap between what the business is achieving and how the market is valuing it has rarely been wider.

April was brutal for the stock, which shed nearly 14% and now hovers close to its 52-week trough. That sell-off came despite a set of fundamentals that, on paper, look robust. The group posted adjusted EBITDA of €44.2 billion for fiscal 2025, representing organic growth of 2.8%, and management has guided for roughly €47.4 billion in 2026. Analysts are pencilling in full-year earnings per share of €2.17.

What has spooked investors is not the operating performance but the political and labour headwinds gathering force in Germany. Ver.di, representing some 60,000 tariff employees, is demanding a 6.6% wage increase. With the employer side having so far tabled no offer, service disruptions have already hit customer support. The two parties are due to meet again on 11 and 12 May for the next round of talks.

The unions have seized on the company’s financial firepower as a bargaining chip. A €2 billion share buyback programme is under way, with the second tranche of up to €550 million already active and scheduled for completion by the end of June. At the annual general meeting in early April, shareholders also approved a dividend of €1.00 per share, paid tax-free from the capital reserve account.

Fibre Expansion Hits 13 Million — But Activation Remains the Achilles’ Heel

Amid the labour noise, Deutsche Telekom continues to lay cable at pace. In the first quarter of 2026, the group added roughly 370,000 new fibre-to-the-home connections — an average of nearly 5,900 per working day and a 2.2% increase year-on-year. March alone contributed 170,000 new lines.

That brings the total number of households and businesses that can now order tariffs of up to 2,000 Mbit/s to 13 million. For the full year, the company is targeting 2.5 million newly addressable premises, with an additional €800 million earmarked for expansion through 2028.

The nagging issue, however, is the activation rate. A significant proportion of homes that could sign up for fibre choose not to. This gap between network availability and active contracts is a structural weakness across the German fibre market — and one that no amount of infrastructure spending alone can solve.

T-Mobile US Steals the Show

Across the Atlantic, the picture is far less ambiguous. T-Mobile US delivered a standout first quarter, with adjusted operating profit rising 12% to $9.2 billion — comfortably ahead of expectations. Customer additions were strong, and the US unit raised its full-year guidance as a result.

That transatlantic earnings engine is the single biggest counterweight to the headwinds in Germany. It also underpins the group’s ability to fund both the buyback and the dividend, even as unions argue that such largesse should instead flow into wages.

A New Satellite Play and a Key Support Level

In a move that diversifies its connectivity offering, Deutsche Telekom has launched “Satellite Internet Access by Starlink” for enterprise and government clients. The fully managed service promises download speeds of up to 400 Mbit/s, targeting locations where fibre or mobile coverage is patchy or where redundancy is critical. The company claims to be the only German network operator offering such a product.

On the chart, the stock has slipped below its 200-day moving average, and technicians are watching the €26 level as the next meaningful support zone. If that holds, the shares could enter the next catalyst — first-quarter results due on 13 May — on a more stable footing.

At current levels, the stock trades on a price-to-earnings multiple of 13.65 and offers a dividend yield of 3.13%. Whether the operational momentum translates into a sustained share price recovery will depend on how convincingly the Bonn-based group can navigate its domestic labour dispute while keeping its US growth story intact.