T-Mobile: over five million customers

• Contract customers make up almost 37% of the customer base
• In the fourth quarter, 226,000 new customers chose TMCZ as their operator
• Positive balance of ported numbers

Prague, 30 January 2007 - In 2006, T-Mobile Czech Republic a.s. managed to further strengthen its position in the Czech mobile telecommunications market. As of 31 December 2006, the number of active SIM cards in the T-Mobile network reached 5.049 million. T-Mobile registered customer additions of more than 415,000 for 2006, which represents a year-on-year increase of this indicator of 51.2%. Contract customers now total 1.809 million, which is 36.8% of the customer base. The number of Twist users at the end of the year was 3.24 million. The operator was also successful in terms of number porting, which started on 15 January 2006. The number of customers who decided to port their number to the T-Mobile network was higher by 4,679 than the number of those who left T-Mobile for another operator.

"Last year was especially successful for us due to the fact that we managed to maintain a very positive trend on the market where the penetration rate is higher than 100%," says Roland Mahler, Managing Director of T-Mobile Czech Republic, adding: "However, we are very well aware that we need to focus on increasing the satisfaction and loyalty of our customers. We aim to achieve this goal through continuous improvement of the quality of products as well as of customer care and permanent monitoring of the needs of individual customer segments."

There are currently 5.049 million customers using T-Mobile's services, which represents a year-on-year increase of 9.0%. The company continued to acquire more and more contract customers - as of 31 December 2006, they totaled approx. 1.8 million, a year-on-year increase of 40.5%. The number of customers using Twist pre-paid cards fell by 3.2% to 3.24 million users.

T-Mobile experienced the biggest enlargement of its customer base in the fourth quarter when it was in the home stretch with its Christmas offer of unlimited calls and SMS, gaining 226,000 new customers. 

TMCZ	31. Dec 2005	31. Dec 2006	change
Number of customers ('000)	4,634	5,049	9.0%
Contract customers	1,287	1,809	40.5%
Twist customers	3,346	3,240	(3.2%)
	Q1-4/2005	Q1-4/2006	change
New customers ('000)	274	415	51.2%
Contract customers	183	522	185.1%
Twist customers	91	(107)	n.a.

Year 2006 also marked the beginning of number portability in the mobile networks. In June 2006 T-Mobile recorded a higher number of customers porting their numbers to T-Mobile than the number of customers porting their T-Mobile number to another operator. The balance was again in the black in September and since then, T-Mobile has seen a net gain of numbers ported to the network. The customers who left
T-Mobile network were mainly customers using pre-paid cards, while the customers porting in were predominantly the contract ones. The development was fully in-line with overall T-Mobile strategy to strengthen the contract customers´base. T­Mobile thus added 4,679 new customers. More than half of the numbers ported to the T-Mobile network belong to corporate customers.

Since 2002, T-Mobile Czech Republic a.s. has been a member of the T-Mobile International Group. The number of customers of T-Mobile International majority-owned companies increased from 86.5 to 106.4 million customers. The number of mobile communications customers in Europe increased by around 16.6 million (i.e. 25.6 percent) to 81.4 million customers in a year-on-year comparison. (For the entire T-Mobile International report, see here.)

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.