Deutsche Telekom Aktie

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Deutsche Telekom's First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. Joining me today are our CEO, Tim Hottges; and our CFO, Christian Illek. As usual, Tim will begin by sharing the key highlights of the quarter, followed by Christian, who will take you through our quarterly performance in more detail and group financials as well. After this, we have time for Q&A. Before handing over to Tim, please take note of the usual disclaimer included in our presentation. Also, please be aware that this conference will be recorded and uploaded to the Internet.

And now it's my pleasure to hand over to Tim.

Thank you, Hannes, and welcome, everybody, to today's call. As you have seen our numbers, we are off to a good start in 2026 on all areas on both sides of the Atlantic. In this world of uncertainty, Deutsche Telekom is resilient, and we are keeping delivering the strong growth as promised. As I called in the press this morning, the headline for this quarter is Deutsche Telekom is robust.

Group organic service revenues were up 4.6% year-on-year. Organic EBITDA accelerated to 7.5% growth. We raised our group guidance today to reflect T-Mobile's guidance increase, and we remain on good track with regard to our capital markets targets. This is very, very sufficient. We demonstrated our innovation leadership at the Mobile World Congress, some of you have seen that. This included the announcement of the first in-call AI assistant and an industry-leading autonomous network agent, just 2 examples where we are the trailblazer of our industry.

Our T-Mobile stake reached almost 54% at the end of April. This is up 2% points from 1 year ago. We used the time here for increasing our shareholding at T-Mobile. As you can see on the next page, our growth remains broad-based. Most notable this quarter as the acceleration in T-Mobile's EBITDA growth, stunning 12% on U.S. GAAP and 10% on IFRS basis. And this is almost doubling with regard to the growth from last year, which was 5.3%.

Our ex U.S. segments all grew and in line with our plans. We keep investing in our market network leadership. In the last 12 months, we passed 3.6 million additional European homes with FTTH. We now reach 13 million homes in Germany. Both in Germany and Europe, we see accelerating fiber customer growth. And by the way, we are very close to be market leader, #1 with regard to our numbers in Germany and in Europe on the fiber side, which is our aspiration.

In the U.S., we agreed to create 2 additional fiber joint ventures, which are expected to pass 1.8 million homes by end of this year. Our mobile networks remain leading across the footprint. And T-Mobile, by the way, just an example, had the highest-ever proportion of switchers who cited network quality as the primary reason to join us.

As you can see on the next page, our growth remains broad-based. Most notable and was the -- I'm sorry, that was already the page before. Let's go to the AI and the digital world. On Page 7 here, you can see our regular update on AI and on digitization. On October 5, we will host our promised investor event that is dedicated to AI. It will last the whole day, I will invite all, let's say, my Board colleagues, but more important, we will go through all the cases with the respective leaders of our organization, and will show the broad variety of AI applications and their implications for our financials in a separate Capital Markets Day event. I don't know whether other companies have done that so far. Even here, I think we are the first one, at least in our industry who is going that deep in showing what we are achieving here and what we aspire for.

So for today, I cannot go into all the details. I'm spending -- my #1 priority in the company is implementing AI and work on AI. So that said, I'll give you a few snippets here. At Mobile World Congress, we made various industry-leading announcement. We unveiled the first AI call assistant that is native to our voice network and that provides live translation, call summaries and contextual assistance in the call. Hello, Magenta, and then the AI agent is supporting the discussion. We will launch this service commercially very soon, and then you can test it out.

We also presented MINDR. This is a multi-agent network solution that predicts, detects and resolves network issues before they impact the customers. So anomaly detection and autonomous repair, there's always a human interface still in the place, but prospectively, it might be full autonomous.

In Germany, our AI-enabled chatbot deflected 1 million calls in the first quarter, and we plan to double the number of deflected calls in 2026. And AI is heavily used in our German fiber deployment for planning, quantity control and documentation, and it's one of the contributors why our build-out cost for fiber came down now quarter-over-quarter.

Coding, another very important example, with AI support, it's 3x faster. In some cases, we even are 95% faster than previous ones. And in April, we turned our annual extended leadership team into an AI base camp in Munich, where everyone, the top 250 people of this company were working. It was like a hackathon. We were all sitting there with our laptops and working on it, learning not only ChatGPT and prompting, but we were, for instance, installing our own skills. We were developing on own GPTs and AI agents. We were working on prototyping MVPs with Lovable, and we were even working on agents with HappyRobots and other partners. So we were deeply in the implementation of AI. We believe that only if the leaders can use the tools personally, the rest of the organization will follow. So therefore, it is on us leading the pack here and showing our own competence.

Let's go to the business. Our customer growth. We had a good market-leading customer growth on both sides of the Atlantic. You have seen the T-Mobile U.S. numbers. We delivered a 6% year-on-year increase in postpaid account net additions. And outside of the U.S., our customers was a bit lower this quarter due to Germany, but nevertheless, still a stunning 327,000 mobile net adds, which we were able to deliver. In Broadband, the growth remains driven by Europe. And in Germany, subscribers were stable for a second successive quarter despite recently communicated price increases. I think this is the art of marketing. If you are, on the one side, growing your customer base, growing your Net Promoter Score and at the same time, being able to pass through some of the inflation, which we were facing in the past to your customers. Good on its way.

Growth in the TV Triple Play remains healthy. In addition, in Germany, we continue to see strong growth with over-the-top TV subscription. And I can promise you one thing. You will see a significant coming now soon for Germany because the World Championship is coming. And as you know, Deutsche Telekom has all the 144 games on their Magenta TV platform.

Society and Environment. We continue our steady progress towards our societal environmental targets. We further reduced our energy consumption on this side of the Atlantic, and we are successfully leveraging AI to drive these efficiencies. Elsewhere, we have developed an end-to-end Scope 3 solution for the automotive value chain. And by the way, we are working on a target setting for all our leaders, including us here as Board members, that is our incentive schemes related not only to Scope 1 and 2, but as well to Scope 3. I think even here, we have a kind of unique position.

On May 19, we will publish our corporate responsibility report, which contains various examples how AI applications can contribute positively to society. And you know that we are very proud that we are already carbon neutral with regard to Scope 1 and 2.

Let's go to the guidance of 2026. T-Mobile U.S. raised its 2026 guidance for EBITDA and free cash by $50 million at the midpoint on April 28, and we are passing on this guidance and increase our guidance today. We are well on track for our unchanged DT ex U.S. guidance. And with that, we will now continue for a constant currency group EBITDA growth of around 6% for this year to EUR 47.5 billion. Our guidance for the free cash flow is now more than EUR 19.8 billion. Our guidance remains based on last year's average dollar exchange of $1.13. As usual, we have a page in the appendix in which we compare our guidance with the consensus using foreign exchange of $1.17.

Ladies and gentlemen, those are the key facts, and as I said, of a very robust start into the year with a good prospects going forward. Some of you may expect me to comment on recent press speculations. I'm afraid I will have to disappoint you. As a matter of principle, we do not comment on market rumors or speculations from the press regarding potential transactions. I trust you will understand that. And I hope you will not take it the wrong way if I do not provide or Christian you with further details or comments in response to related questions later on. And with that, over to Christian for his usual deep dive.

Thanks, Tim. And let me first quickly recap T-Mobile's strong first quarter results, and I will basically compare everything based on U.S. GAAP. So you know they've grown service revenue by 11.3%, and that is coming from an acceleration in organic growth, but heavily supported also by the acquisitions from last year, especially driven by USCellular.

Core adjusted EBITDA also accelerated from 6.8% in the fourth quarter to 11.9% in the first quarter. And as Tim said earlier on, also the organic EBITDA growth accelerated. Despite a competitive environment, T-Mobile achieved a higher postpaid account growth than it had last year. It was a 6% increase. And what it looks like it's the strongest in the industry. At the same time, they were able to increase the ARPA by nearly 4%, well ahead of the industry peers.

The broadband subscriptions, which we don't show on the chart here, were over 500,000 this quarter with fixed wireless access additions being higher than they were a year ago. Based on all these positive results, T-Mobile raised its customer guidance on account growth by 50,000 to a midpoint of 1 million or a range of 950,000 to 1,050,000.

Moving on to Germany. And I would say Germany actually had a solid quarter. Total revenues grew by 2.1% in the first quarter of this year, and the growth was roughly driven 50% coming from service revenue, 50% coming from non-service revenue. This quarter's adjusted EBITDA performance was 2.5%, pretty much the same -- it's the same like we had in the previous quarter, and it's actually along our expectations. The mobile service revenue slowed down a little bit sequentially to 2.1%, but it remained in the guidance corridor, and we are absolutely comfortable to achieve our guidance when it comes to mobile service revenue. Fixed service revenue slowed down sequentially. It was slightly better in the last 2 quarters, but you know that in Q4 and in Q3, we had strongly -- we had phasing impacts -- negative phasing impacts from B2B.

As you also can see in the next page, the broadband revenue remains subdued. This is mainly an effect of the customer losses we were facing in 2025. The ARPA still remains strong in the consumer side with a growth of roughly 3%. With our back book prices, we're seeing a slightly elevated churn. It's kicking in starting from February. So we expect that this impact will last over the course of the second and the third quarter with a peak in the second quarter.

Wholesale revenue growth remained in positive territory. ARPA growth continues to offset the volume losses. But please keep in mind the annual price increases for the lower DSL tariffs as agreed upon with the commitment contracts back in 2021 will roll over starting from the next quarter. Still, we expect that the wholesale access ARPA will continue to grow in the upcoming quarters.

So let's look at the broadband base and the subscriber base. What you've seen is we were able to maintain a stable subscriber base in the first quarter, and we're also intending to basically stabilize the broadband subscriber base in the second quarter. So in any case, given that we have introduced the back book price increases in April, and we're seeing this that we expect a higher churn in the next coming 2 quarters.

So that means if we intend to have a stable broadband base for the remainder of the year, and we have the peak churn in second quarter, the second half should give us better broadband revenue growth figures than we've seen it right now. We launched multiple initiatives on broadband performance. And one of the biggest one with the biggest impact is obviously the fiber penetration. What you can see on fiber is we have a 16% increase in fiber net additions to 148,000. And you see also that despite our continuous rollout of 2.5 million households passed, we see an increase in the fiber penetration by 10%.

On the TV side, you see steady growth on the Triple Play. Additionally, we are continuing to add a significant number of OTT contracts. It was 90,000 in the first quarter. So that adds up to close to 120,000, and that compares to a complete increase in 2025 for the full year of 344,000, and we expect obviously the OTT performance, but also the Triple Play performance in front of the World Championship to actually increase.

Moving to the German mobile KPIs. Customer growth remained solid, but it was a little bit slower than on a quarter-by-quarter basis, especially if you compare it to the previous years. This is partly due to the price increase, which we introduced back in February on the multicards on the third and fourth card, but it may also be an effect of the market growth in this given quarter. We have seen Vodafone, we have seen 1&1. Obviously, Telefonica is coming tomorrow. We will see how this pans out in terms of total growth. The growth in data usage obviously reflects our unlimited propositions, which we feel comfortable with given that we are expanding the capacity of our mobile network.

Moving over to Europe. You see another strong quarter, 33 consecutive quarters of organic EBITDA growth. Service revenue grew by 2.1% on an organic basis, very strongly supported by service revenue growth all up. And here, we had an extraordinary strong performance of IT service revenue coming from Greece. The organic EBITDA grew by 3.5%. And if you extract the relief of the Hungarian telco tax from last year, that is pretty much the same run rate as we had last year. Underpinning our financial results, you see our European commercial momentum remains very resilient and positive. You can take a look on the chart on Page 20.

Moving over to T-Systems. Also, T-Systems remains on a positive track according to all relevant parameters. As we communicated, we will have a slower EBITDA growth than last year. That reflects our investments into future growth opportunities like sovereign cloud and artificial intelligence. But in any case, I think we're feeling really comfortable with their performance. So that is basically my operational review, and let's look at the reported financials.

Obviously, what you see is that the reported financials were impacted by a weaker dollar, and that's been highlighted on this chart here. Despite a weaker dollar, you see that our adjusted earnings per share grew at 8%. So we feel comfortable with the guidance of 10% over the course of the full year. Moving over to the free cash flow bridge. You see that the free cash flow was supported by a lower CapEx spend, predominantly driven by Germany. And we had kind of a drag on the cash flow from operations, and this is due to ForEx, a weaker dollar and EUR 300 million of higher restructuring expenses, which are all related to the U.S. The adjusted net profit is obviously driven by higher EBIT if you combine EBITDA and depreciation, partly offset by the financial results and taxes.

Moving over to net debt. What you can see is the net debt has increased by -- without leases by EUR 1.4 billion. The very strong shareholder remuneration of, in total, EUR 5.1 billion basically could be offset by a strong free cash flow momentum. And I think the increase is purely due to the dollar. And if we take a look at our leverage ratios, including leases, we are well below the comfort zone of 2.75, at 2.64, and I think this continuous performance on the net leverage also led to the decision of Standard & Poor's to increase our rating after 18 years to A-. That makes me happy, as you can imagine.

So that is my review operationally and financially. And I think you, Tim, going to summarize the quarter.

No, it was robust, Christian. And I'm very happy that after 18 years, we are now A-. So what are we doing with the money? That should be the discussion, and our investors have definitely great ideas. So let them question us.

Okay. With that, we swiftly move on to the Q&A section. And I'm sure that's a good topic to debate. So we now have the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] With that, let's begin. So I think the first question will be from Akhil Dattani at JPMorgan.

Tim, maybe I'll take up your offer of starting on the comment about the balance sheet and what you could do with it and maybe reference the reports that I'm sure you saw last month in regards to the possibility of DT considering a transaction with T-Mobile. I'm not sure to what extent you're able or willing to comment on the specifics of that. But at least conceptually, maybe you could give us some thoughts around the pros and cons of why such a transaction might be of interest? And maybe with that, I'm sure you heard T-Mobile CEO's comments around the dealer requiring minority approvals. So obviously, any comments on that, too, would be helpful.

And then the second one, sticking big picture is on satellites. I'm sure you, like ourselves, have been fielding more and more questions around satellites in the context of the SpaceX IPO process now kicking off. The question, I guess, is just understanding how you think about the value chain that satellites presents within telcos and the juxtaposition between it being a complement with direct-to-device to potentially the risk that at some point, could it become a threat within mobile. So if you could sort of talk us through how you think about the opportunities and threats on satellites and so on?

Good. Thanks for the questions. Look, I said it in my speech. I will not comment on market speculation or hypothetical transactions. Look, what I can say is that our capital allocation framework, which we have is unchanged. And there is nothing which we have beyond that. And there is -- I'm not known for being always very careful in what I'm saying. I'm always speaking up my mind, but I do not want to, let's say, having any kind of speculation around this company and any kind of transactions only because there's a Bloomberg report, which is talking about something. If I start with that, it will never end.

So therefore, I've never done that in the past with regard to Sprint transactions or whatever or other rumors and please respect that not as a kind of hostile attitude, it's just I want to protect the company and protect, let's say, the value of this company going forward. When we have something to say on anything, we will do that. But please give us as well some credits. I'm now here 2009. I started as a Head of M&A, later on finance CFO. I've done a lot of, let's say, transaction in the past. And please, look in the past and look how accretive things were for our shareholders, always what we have done. There was nothing which was destroying value, the opposite. And therefore, please give us some credit. And when we have something to say and when there's something coming, then we will do this, but not at that point in time.

With regard to the satellites, to be honestly, I'm very proud and very happy to have a partner like SpaceX. I admire Elon Musk and his team in every regard. And in the past, I learned a lot about, let's say, how you play up with this kind of disruptive entrepreneurs in the world. By the way, I'm sitting even in the Mercedes Board, and I can tell you if these guys are looking on Tesla, sometimes I feel that they are sitting in the same situation as our telcos. The telcos are very fragmented small players with low market caps, while Tesla is, I think, cumulative, the value of the whole car industry in Europe or something like this.

So it's an amazing -- and it's a little bit like our industry. So I'm looking into SpaceX and seeing that there is, maybe a [ $2 trillion ] IPO standing in front of the door. I'm very impressed about that one. I see the disruption of that company when it comes to the launching capacity and their strong almost monopolistic position here. I see the AI capability, which is built into the telco. I see the disruptive ideas when it comes to the way of approaching customers going forward. So I see all, let's say, the strength, and I'm very impressed about that one.

So the first thing is having these guys as a partner is always a good thing to have because if you can't fight the dragon, ride the dragon. Now is it a dragon? That's the big question, which is in the market? And look, I can tell you, we spend a lot of time on this one. I see that 99% of the traffic is terrestrial traffic and will not be substituted nor it will be even able to handle this from a satellite service, impossible. So therefore, this is an adjacent service, which we need and which we have and which is 100% fitting into the proposition of our company that we always want to have the best network and that we always want to be best connected for our customers.

Now we have extended our Gen 1 product in the U.S. now from consumers to B2B. You saw the announcements. And we have a Gen 2 deal for Starlink here for Europe. I like it. I like the idea of connecting my customers wherever they are in areas where I can't do it, and that is helping me, but it will be an adjacent service and complementary option for us. And we will make it as easy as possible to use that for our services.

So looking forward, I really want to partner with that customer, but I do not want to throw my destiny into one hand, nor I want to have, let's say, a Starlink, which is a kingmaker of the destiny of our businesses. So therefore, we will be open to other satellite companies as well because that makes sense in the logic. And if you recall in my Capital Markets Day presentation about the long-term strategic view, I was talking about network of networks and that is exactly where this industry is heading to. And therefore, we have to build adjacencies here into our functionals, and that is what we are working on. I'm really seeing that as an upside for Deutsche Telekom than rather as a cannibalization or a killer as somebody has written recently.

And the next question is from Mathieu Robilliard at Barclays.

So probably I'll come back to the capital allocation from a different angle. We've seen during the first quarter of the year, some push on convergent products from your competitors. And of course, we know that in terms of fixed line infrastructure, you have less choice or less assets than the others. I know you've been saying that you don't think convergence is a big threat for you. But is your thinking evolving? And in that context, again, with keeping in mind the question we can't ask, is cable something that could help you close that gap? I know you've been asked about that, but things can change.

Now a second question was about Germany closer to home. So we've seen, of course, in the press that negotiation with the unions in Germany has started for the next 2 years. I wouldn't expect you to give us your expectation of where it lands, but obviously, they're pushing for quite a big increase. So maybe if you could give us a bit of color in terms of the dynamics of the personnel costs. I realize you reduce personnel every year. It's not a firm guidance or target, but certainly, you're delivering on that. How should we think about wage pressure on the German business? Because it's quite a big part. I estimate around EUR 4 billion per year. Maybe I'm off the ball, but any clarification would be great.

Okay, Mathieu, let me start with your convergence question and capital allocation. So look, if you just take a look -- let's start with the U.S. on their performance in the first quarter, I think both fiber and fixed wireless access were strong. I think the management team reconfirmed the 18 million to 19 million subscribers by the year 2030. You've seen that we have expanded our share buyback program to up to another EUR 3.6 billion, which totals then into USD 18.2 billion.

I think the U.S. team has announced 2 fiber joint ventures. And I think that's their strategy. And I think Srini was pretty clear about whether he's interested in cable, yes or no. And I think he said in the Q1 call, no. So from a capital allocation strategy in the U.S., I don't see any kind of changes. And when it comes to the ex U.S. business, you know that we have expanded our envelope for fiber in Germany by EUR 800 million over the next 3 years. I think we are progressing well along the adjusted strategy, having a stronger focus on full build-out of MDUs, but also a stronger build-out of SDUs.

So from this perspective, I think all what we have said when it comes to capital allocation is primary purposes is as we're doing it right now, and we made a very clear statement, increasing the shareholding in the U.S., conducting our share buyback program in Germany here on the DT side. So there is no change.

When it comes to the tariff agreement, I think it has become public now we have handed in the first offer towards the social partner. And I think we will have to see how they respond to this. The next negotiation round is end of May, where they're sitting together for 2 consecutive days.

Look, I have the expectation -- my personal expectation is that we get a balanced agreement on this one. And we have been very clear that we felt the last agreement was too generous. So from this perspective, I think we hope for a better agreement on this one, but it's in the making, and it's hard to basically make comments here from the outside when it comes to the tariff agreement.

And with that, we move on to David Wright at Bank of America. David, please?

I hope you can hear me and apologies for the lack of video or maybe not. So 2 questions, kind of a detailed one, first of all, just in Germany or a detailed one, I should say. Your fiber adds have stepped up, and obviously, your broadband performance has significantly outperformed your #1 peer, Vodafone, this quarter and well, for some quarters.

I wondered, is fiber versus cable starting to become a thing, right? Is it starting? Are you seeing the green shoots of fiber versus cable becoming a thing? And then my next question for yourself, Tim, for Christian, and I almost want to sort of take Mathieu's question and kind of double down, which is you talk about the best network, the best connectivity, and that was your Starlink reference too.

I guess if I look at Germany and think about capital allocation, you are lagging on fiber. And okay, I accept the customer demand curve is not there, but there are multiple other reasons to build and you have allowed alternative capital into Germany, which has caused some pain. And in the U.S., you don't have scale, let's say, yet in fiber. And there are major chess pieces moving across the board in U.S. fiber right now. Does it concern you that you don't have the scale in German fixed? And how much of a worry is that if this market does move to convergence a little more quickly? So that would help.

Sorry. Let me start with the first question, David. I think it is too early to tell. But if you tear down the customer -- the broadband losses from Vodafone, given what they have presented yesterday, if I'm not mistaken, 2/3 are coming from the cable infrastructure and 1/3 is coming from the DSL infrastructure, which they're obviously relying on our infrastructure. So I think it is too early to tell whether this becomes a trend, but there was always our belief that fiber is superior relative to cable. And at least you can interpret the numbers from Vodafone in that direction. So we clearly believe that this is ultimately the superior infrastructure. And we're building out in rural areas. So we are facing cable competition other than the altnets. And so from this perspective, I think it is an early indication, but we have to watch out whether this trend continues.

And Christian, I'd like to add one sense. Look, I was criticizing Vodafone in one of the last quarter calls here because they have reduced their prices so that they were not trying to keep the discipline in this market for a longer time and then really, let's say, trying to connect their customers to the base. And despite these price reductions, they were not able to keep the customer base. And that has something to do the quality. The only answer for long-term fiber or broadband success in Germany is quality and investments. That's the simple answer.

And therefore, if you ask me, is fiber superior to cable? Yes, it is, definitely, and big time. And where we deploy it, we have an advantage. And on top of that, we come with our brand, we come with our credibility, we come with our good reputation. We come with a good service, which we just got awarded all, let's say, tests here in Germany. And this all together is then creating an advantage which we are playing out.

Now on top of that, as we have laid out in the last call, Rodrigo and his team, they have done a lot of activities around churn management, proactive using data to anticipate potential churners. They have laid out a new portfolio with fixed mobile convergence, so with kind of mobile substitution here. And on top of that, we have changed our rollout in areas where we are anticipating high churn and even this is paying out. So this is why our numbers are better than the numbers in the whole industry, but it's hard work, and it's a lot of changes which we have done. And by the way, we are even more optimistic with regard to the next quarters than we are today because don't forget, guys, we are in the middle of a price increase for the whole customer base of our broadband customer base here. So this is something which we are managing at the same time with this positive net adds.

Coming to the next question, look -- are you spending enough on German fiber was the question? And I think Christian said it, we have an additional EUR 800 million investments over the next 3 years. We have now made progress on the build-out and the productivity here and the industrialization of it. This morning, I said maybe a 15% improvements on the costs per line. We have committed rolling out 2.5 million homes passed per year in the coming years, which is the highest rate of all players here in the German market. We have a lot of, let's say, companies who are working for us. It's a high complex rollout plan, including, let's say, all the approval processes. To be honest, even if we would have more money, I'm not sure whether we can easily accelerate this number beyond our aspiration here. So therefore, when we have more possibilities and see more possibilities, we will definitely consider this and come back to you on this.

The MDU build-out is for us the most important thing and the SDU rollout in rural areas where we have lost against the altnets in the past, these 2 kind of priorities are super relevant right now, and we want to see the benefit from that.

Okay. MDU is a good word to call our next question from James, but maybe has another topic today. James Ratzer, New Street, please.

And yes, don't worry, I'll stick to being a stuck record. So I will open up with a question on MDUs then because that was where I was going to go with the first question. And specifically on the issue of the [indiscernible] rule with the new TKG law draft, I mean, it looks pretty clear that the government wants to do everything it can to accelerate fiber build in Germany. And given your strong balance sheet, I mean, it looks like you have potentially a huge opportunity here to kind of really strengthen your infrastructure position in Germany at a time when the other challengers can't afford to do this. So is this an opportunity you would like to take advantage of over the next few years to accelerate that build in MDUs, even if it might mean slightly higher CapEx in Germany?

And then the second question is, if I look across your group structure, and you might not like me asking this question, but I see minorities in your assets in Eastern Europe. I see obviously minorities in your asset in the U.S. Do you think having minorities in your assets leads to any inefficiencies in the cost structure of running Deutsche Telekom Group and you could be running the business more efficiently without minorities in any of those assets?

Let me start with the second question, James. I think you know that we both -- in all 3 assets you're alluding to, [indiscernible] Croatia and Greece, we're basically pursuing a combined share buyback and dividend approach. So by not selling into a share buyback, we are automatically increasing our shareholding. The second piece is these are not the most liquid assets right now. So right now, we -- it is accretive from a net income point of view, but they are not super liquid assets. And it has some advantages if you have joint, let's say, ownership on a given asset also when it comes to regulation. So from this perspective, I think we're taking the long haul shot by basically accreting our shareholding in all of these 3 assets by not selling into a share buyback, but we have no intent to actually squeeze out the minorities in either of these 3 assets.

And is that the same for the U.S. as well then, where there's also kind of alternative cost structure as well with minorities?

I just commented on the 3 European assets my dear.

By the way, we have said that we are considering always to step up. And what we're doing right now is increasing our shareholding in the U.S. And we mentioned 54% already. So the answer is in principle, yes, it always depends on our assumption about what is the value of the U.S. and what is the growth prospects and the value. We are investors like you are in this regard and looking to opportunities here as well. I mentioned that already in, I think, 2 quarters ago.

Let me come to your question, James. You're right. The direction from our policymakers is very clear. Germany wants to accelerate fiber rollout and particularly improve the economics and the execution speed in the multi-dwelling units. And from our perspective, this is fundamentally positive. Germany needs faster digital infrastructure deployment, and we need a regulation which is supporting the investments and not slowing them down.

Now regarding your question, whether this creates an opportunity for us, clearly, scale, operational capability, financial strength matters in this environment. And I haven't answered the question maybe from David in all detail, but you know the reason that we do not have the same ambition to build a fiber network in the U.S. as we have it in Germany has to do with our infrastructure logic. We want to replace our copper infrastructure share by a fiber share in Germany or in the markets where we have already an existing broadband business.

In the U.S., it's an add-on business. In Europe in most of the markets, it's a replacing business of an existing. And we do not want to end up in a shrinking revenue or EBITDA business on a long term if our infrastructure share in fiber is significantly lower than our infrastructure in copper was. That is always the fundamental strategic imperative, and that is what we are driving here, and that is why we are fully deploying fiber at that point in time.

Now look, it's interesting that you ask me to invest more into fiber. The market looks for me quite dead. If I see the refinancing of some of my competitors, if I see the withdraw from commitments of the smaller outlets, if I see that Deutsche Telekom is now stemming more than 50% of the whole build-out of Germany, you can even ask why the hell are you spending so much money in this kind of damp market? I do this because we believe in the promoters in the net present value. And we believe that on the long term, this infrastructure will have significantly payout for us.

So if we get the opportunity or if we have, let's say, beyond the EUR 800 million, the opportunity to convince you -- and by the way, I will first consult my market and say, is this a wise decision? Would you support that idea? Then we are always open if we have the capabilities and the financial resources which we have to deploy even more. But at that point in time, we are happy with the net add build-out share, which we're currently creating and the speed we are having and all hands on deck.

We have to digest first what our ambitions are. But yes, I'm open to consider this. In Europe, where we have the proof of the concept already, we are doing it. We are investing more in fiber. We're investing more in household, and we are accelerating our build-out, for instance, in Greece already today, as you've seen in the numbers. So therefore, we are always open to these opportunities.

And James, just a detailed point on the TKG draft. The biggest change we're advocating for is right now, the draft foresees that a landowner or an owner can refuse an in-house rollout over the course of 24 months, and we want to bring this down significantly to 9 months because then we can get into faster action.

And I think next is Andrew Lee at Goldman Sachs.

I just wanted to follow on from a lot of comments around investment just in the last answer from Tim and Christian. Could you just talk about whether you feel like your balance sheet restricts your strategic flexibility from DT Europe ex U.S. And if you want to comment on the U.S. as well, great. But just specifically on DT ex U.S., you talked a lot about -- you mentioned just on this call that even if you had more money to invest in fiber, you wouldn't necessarily be able to deploy it. You're obviously already building up your stake in TMUS. So is there any sense in which you feel restricted in what you can do strategically by the balance sheet as it stands today?

And then just second question was on U.S. competition. So I think if we think about the 3 areas that are making investors nervous at the moment are on DT Group. We've touched on 2, the combination, the satellite risk factor that people are trying to understand. And I think your answer is very clear on that in terms of your view at least.

And then the third is probably the current U.S. levels of competition. I appreciate that we've heard from Tim a couple of weeks ago, but it would be great to get your take on what you're seeing from -- or any kind of impact or structural change in the competitive intensity in that market with Verizon's shift or tilt or any other change in behavior that you can see?

So Andrew, let me ask you -- let me give you an answer on the balance sheet potential restrictions. I don't see them. I think we have been very prudent in the way how we're managing down leverage. Remember, '21, we were at 3.1. Now we are at 2.6. And obviously, I think this is a continuous trend. I'm actually happy that we get this upgrade because you see now not only Moody's sees that we have a very strong balance sheet, but also Standard & Poor's.

And what we said is we create over the course of the full Capital Markets Day period, a surplus on the DT side of EUR 15 billion. And we said the primary purposes are the U.S. shareholding and the second one is share buybacks on the DT side. But we have never ruled out if there's an attractive target in Europe, that we will consider this and basically get engaged on this one. But we have to see the targets first, and they have to be accretive also in a way that they either have a strong strategic value or a strong financial accretion. But I have absolutely no restriction because we now move to A1, we felt comfortable with BBB+. So I think there's a lot of wiggle room on the balance sheet, and it does definitely not impact the ex U.S. business.

Look, going further into your question with regard to the market, I talked about satellite already. I don't see that as a threat. I see them as a kind of add-on and even a business opportunity, which is helping our clear strategic proposition, and we will balance the power in this world.

But on the second question, you are talking about my mobile competitors and the concerns, at least you had at the beginning of the year. I would say this has not at all altered our confidence in T-Mobile U.S. Why should we otherwise not participate in the share buyback? That's the same decision we took because we see a big opportunity. Now this is our portfolio assessment. You might have another one, but we believe in the U.S. stock in this environment going forward, and we believe in the growth and in the value. And by the way, the first quarter confirmed exactly our aspiration, showing a company with 10% EBITDA growth and let's say, a clear way forward, I think that is very impressive, and it was worthwhile spending money into this.

Second, I see even some kind of cooling off of the heat of the competition in the U.S. these days. Now this is coming and going. There have been maybe at the beginning of the year, more aggressiveness. Now, more there is a bigger value focus in this regard. We are not putting oil in the fire here in the U.S. And therefore, I see some better improvements even from that angle. And so therefore, we have a moderated competition, I would say, going forward, but never know what's happening during the course of the year. We are focusing, and we will not change.

And the advantage of having me and Christian and [ Denisa ] sitting here in the company, we stay focused on a very clear strategy: unique value proposition by always the best network, good value in the U.S., the best value and the best customer experience. And this pays off. We're doing always new things around that, supporting with AI, putting network of networks into place, extending our footprint and being, I would say, attractive with partner cards and the like. But the core proposition of our brand stays very, very intact. And that, I think, is a value in itself.

So therefore, I'm very confident that we have a good position how we're doing it today, and therefore, I'm not concerned. And we have even seen that the growth rates of the cablecos have not been that strong. So we have a big opportunity to add additional growth from our fiber net adds, which is not as in Europe, a compensation or a kind of placement for the old broadband world, but it's an add-on opportunity for growth and for EBITDA. So that's how I'm looking at T-Mobile, and that is why we're saying it's an attractive investment.

Great. And I think next is Josh Mills at BNP Paribas.

Two questions from my side. One about where you see the benefits of scale in your business. And then the second, I wanted to come back to the German broadband market. So I start with the first one. Tim, I think in the past, you've highlighted a few reasons why you think DT should be considered separately to other European telcos. And you referred to the scale you have, the free cash flow generation you get as a result of the TMUS ownership.

So I'd be interested maybe if you could a bit more color whether you think that scale is more relevant to your telco business or whether it's more important for unlocking some of these AI opportunities that you're starting to talk about more. The reason is that I know you'll be giving an update later in the year, but we've heard a lot of telcos in Europe, even some of the smaller ones talk about AI partnerships. So it'd be great to hear why you think TMUS is a route to getting relationships or partnerships that others may not have would be the first question.

And then the second question, I know you talked about the reports of the German altnets being dead in terms of new build strategy and rollout, but there's a lag effect between them being dead on the rollout and then pushing penetration in the existing infrastructure. So have you seen any change in the rate of retail penetration on the altnets which have been built today? And have you seen any change in the growth in the overall German broadband market, which I think on the last conference call, you said it slowed down to maybe a couple of hundred thousand net adds a year, which obviously, if the on-net are growing means that some of the existing operators will need to lose?

So on the second question, the answer is yes and yes. We see that their penetration is going down. We see even that their growth is slowing down for different reasons. And we see even that the amount of homes passed is slowing down significantly, so their future prospects on higher penetration. So we see our infrastructure share rising in the German market, being it through our own retail business or being it, let's say, with our wholesale partners. I think our wholesale partners could do more. That is something which we discussed internally, but our market share is growing. And one of the reasons is as well the slowdown of our competition.

With regard to the first question, look, I do not want to repeat what we have said on the Capital Markets Day in all details. But if you ask me a trade-off, the AI opportunities is the biggest opportunity we have in the business, and this is significantly higher than doing everything in a common standardized way. So therefore -- and this is true for the whole organization for the U.S. and for our own European activities.

Now as long as we use AI as a tool, we will get only a fraction of the benefits. The moment where we understand AI as a kind of opportunity, which is taking -- changing the workflow of the way how we are organizing ourselves, how the governance is looking like? That moment, we take the full benefits of it. We see that in our customer service areas where we're already benefiting 30% to 35% cost reductions by just changing the way how the workflow is organized and using the data and the automation here, and that is something which we have to do everywhere.

So I cannot tell you how important I think how telco business is looking like in the future. It will be significantly -- in all areas, significantly different to the world how we are acting today. We are highly headcount and people intensive. We are highly manual in a lot of areas. Still, we have mass market process, which we can standardize and digitize, both in the customer interaction, but even in the internal workflows. And that is, let's say, the biggest task.

Now we can learn from each other, and we should always use the same data model. We should use the same APIs that we can deploy software, which we are -- or algorithms which we're using here in other areas, and that is what we're doing. MINDR, which I like the animal detection and the autonomous network initiative is something which we are playing out in all countries and not only in Germany or in one respective one. So we are standardizing it and then we're deploying it across the countries, but this is one of the benefits.

Now when it comes to scale, there is a scale element, and we are committing to it. We had some discussion about scale in the organization, how we organize it, whether you do that in a centralization mode or whether you do that in a decentral project-by-project approach. And by the way, there is no right or wrong on this one. The only question is whether people committed to implement that. We are committing EUR 400 million for -- within the capital markets envelope just on the scale side already today. And I can now repeat it, but I do not want to eat the time here from everybody. This is network at scale in the main area where we are standardizing certain functions in our operations. And if you have maybe the time later on, I can give you the details of it. But Christian, you are now...

Let me give you 3 practical Horizon 1 examples for scale. One is obviously procurement. We're rolling out a common procurement approach across European and NatCos so that we treat and consolidate demand in a similar or same fashion, and we're going to lock this into the IT systems in a way that you really have standardization being built into the machine.

The second one is, look, we have 3 international traffic networks. There's scope for consolidation across the European focus. Obviously, there's network modernization to come. So there's a big effort underway to standardize this when it comes to how do we basically do multi-carrier aggregation across the different NatCos, but also how do we consolidate vendor demand and standardize this in a certain direction that not only gives you procurement opportunities, but also supply chain opportunities. So that's the, I would say, very hands-on scale opportunities, which we have to standardize across the organization. The key point is we have to standardize the process. That doesn't mean that we have to centralize the organization.

And with that, we now move on to Carl Murdock-Smith at Citi.

That's great. Two questions on Germany, please. One on ARPU and one on CapEx and FTTH rollout. So in its results yesterday, Vodafone reported that its broadband inflow ARPU is now up 30% year-on-year and is now above back book ARPU. I was wondering if having a competitor making that level of change to its front book pricing, that creates an opportunity for similar increases across the sector. So I was wondering what is happening to your inflow ARPU?

And then secondly, on CapEx and FTTH rollout. I know you've said it's just phasing and will normalize through the year, but the lower CapEx in Germany in Q1 was quite stark. And then also looking at the FTTH penetration ramp-up on Slide 17 of the results by 70 basis points in the quarter to 17.1%, that's despite FTTH net adds being within the range of previous quarters. So it therefore looks like it's something to do with the denominator and that fiber build has slowed in Q1. Is that the case explaining the lower CapEx in Q1? Obviously, Q1 is typically quite cold. So is this simply a weather-related slowdown that you'll catch up on going through the rest of the year?

Okay. Maybe I start with the inflow ARPU. I mean, so you see our B2C ARPU up 3.1% year-on-year, right? So clearly, we have a positive momentum on the front book versus the back book. Otherwise, this wouldn't happen, and it comes from upselling rather than price increases. There have been some price moves last year. We have cut promotional periods from 6 months to 3 months. We had a front book price increase by EUR 1 in October. And of course, now we have a back book increase. So the math gets a bit more blurred in those terms. But we not -- don't have a comparable number specifically to Vodafone, and I doubt it would be that dramatic because our development has been extremely consistent and steady over recent quarters. And -- but the broadband price increase that we have put through for less than half of our customers is going to feed in from April, okay?

So on the second question, phasing is phasing. So this is cash CapEx, and I wouldn't read anything into it in terms of our full year prospects. I mean we have talked about efficiencies. We are becoming more efficient. We are recycling the efficiencies into a better mix and more connections. And that's what's happening. But for the full year, we continue to see a CapEx increase. Anything to add?

Okay. Okay, is that answered? Okay. So next up is actually Robert Grindle.

Just a quick question. Was there a question on free cash flow, why the free cash flow was impacted? Because -- so I think we had a drag on the free cash flow, I'm not sure whether there was a question, of roughly EUR 800 million coming from the U.S. dollar compared to the previous year and EUR 300 million from restructuring costs. That basically was a drag on the operating free cash flow. If this was the question because I was taking the questions and answering them right now, so I wasn't listening accordingly.

Yes. Okay. Thanks for that. Next up, I would like to take a question from Robert Grindle, who had connection problems, and I hope he hears me. But he asked ICT Systems order book growth has slowed again in the first quarter and is at low levels, 1% versus double digit in the first half of the year. Anything to say here? Is this a sign of drag from the German economy, uncertainty geopolitically, the economy weighing? Or should I -- that's basically the question.

The answer is pretty easy. It's seasonality. We have had some big deals in the first quarter last year. And this year, they are absent. I think we're committed to our guidance when it comes to order entry growth, but this is simply seasonality.

And with that, we move on to Polo at UBS -- Polo Tang at UBS, please.

I have 2. The first one is on AI. So you already talked about the cost saving opportunity from AI. But can you maybe talk about whether you see a revenue opportunity from AI? So specifically, do you think the hyperscalers will pay telecom operators for connectivity? Alternatively, is the revenue opportunity more in software and cloud? Are there any revenue opportunities from AI RAN? And if there are revenue opportunities, will this come at the cost of higher CapEx? My second question is really just about German fiscal stimulus and infrastructure stimulus. So now that we're 1 year in, what is your view on how this is affecting both DT, but also the broader German market?

Let me ask for the first question. By the way, you are asking a big question for a long-term perspective of our industry. And if you ask me, do you see that tomorrow, I would say, less of it. If you ask me with regard to the opportunities long term, and now we are talking to the connectivity-related AI volumes, I would say, definitely, yes.

Now let me talk first about the area of connectivity. AI requires super large data movements. It requires low latency. It requires resilience. It requires secure connectivity between users, enterprises, clouds, edge locations, data centers. We see this huge traffic. Every data center is empowered by a 400 gigabit data connection. And we have -- in Munich, we have 2 of them. So this is all fundamentally positive for telecom networks.

So therefore, I would be careful with the idea that hyperscalers will simply pay telcos a new premium for connectivity in a very generic way. So therefore, we have a kind of arm twist here, which we have to play out. But I believe that enterprise-grade quality and that the security latency, all these issues, they are capabilities, maybe even on a token-based logic to be monetized in this new ecosystem. In the past, we had voice, then we had video and now we have as well AI in the networks, and this is a clear opportunity for our industry.

Second, the area for me is around businesses in AI. Take sovereign cloud, super relevant for us here in Europe. I can tell you, I said it this morning, our Blackwell-200s are sold out in Munich in the data center. Our RTXs are something in the vicinity of 40% utilized after 3 months. We are considering expanding the data center already today, which requires apart from the chipsets as well energy throughput. So we see that many enterprises, the public sector wants the benefit of AI. So -- but they want it with a clear requirement on data sovereignty, compliance, security, operational control, which we are offering today. So yes, there's an opportunity for additional growth. And by the way, we are seriously investing into this one.

The third idea is the idea of AI for customers. Look, if you go to a customer and show them a kind of most viable product or a prototyping of a solution which he can enable with AI on his network with Lovable and the like, I can tell you there's an opportunity for our B2B area to develop that. On the T-Systems, we are already monitoring it -- monetizing it. Look, digital services. Digital service at T-Systems, which is the second leg is mainly driven by this AI-driven applications.

On the B2B side, for the SMEs and for the large enterprises, which are not covered by T-Systems, I have to say we are at the beginning. We have to work on this one, but I see even here an opportunity for growth. To be honest, this is something where we have to get a commitment behind that. I hope that until the 5th of October, we can give you a clear guide on this one. I do not want to commit something here, which I, at the end of the day, cannot deliver. But seriously, we see just on these 3 angles, a big opportunity going forward.

Okay. Let me try to answer the second question on the fiscal stimulus. As you know, we have basically -- we will use this stimulus of roughly EUR 0.5 billion over 3 years by increasing our fiber envelope. So we will utilize this. But if you take a look to the overall German market sentiment, I would say it's not really good. It has come down. So if you take a look at the forecast for the GDP growth in Germany, it's trailing somewhere in between stagnant to 1%. I would say the midpoint is 0.5% growth. Consumer sentiment has not really increased. It's at maximum stable. And what we're going to see is that the number of insolvencies in Germany are on a multiyear high.

So how does that impact DT? I think we're impacted on the insolvencies on the bad debt figures. This is not detrimental to us, but you can see it in the numbers. What we have seen in the previous, let's say, crisis, whether it's been the financial crisis, Ukrainian crisis, we have seen that the total service revenue is not really correlated with the GDP growth. So I would expect that we have some impact on the B2B side. The outlook for Germany is not really good, but it's not that significant that we should change any kind of guidance figures, which we put out for the year.

And next, we move to Ulrich Rathe at SocGen, please. Ulrich -- Bernstein, sorry. Oh my God.

That's alright. Just wanted to flag out because your Playmobil alter ego has escaped from the desk since the conference -- since the press conference. I'm not sure where it ran away to. My first question is on Rheinmetall. You mentioned in the press conference that you see significant opportunity that you mentioned the drone defense as sort of the initial one.

My question is about the scalability of this. Is this -- could this become a proper vertical for DT? Can it be scaled outside of the footprint? Or is this really business for DT in Germany and therefore, not necessarily something that can scale in the context of you saying it could be a very significant opportunity for the group, as I understood the comments.

The second question is on German broadband. You highlighted several times that we should look at the net adds currently in the context of the price increase that's working itself through the base. My question is, are you putting significant resources into retention offers? And how do you deal with marketing -- the relative level of aggressiveness marketing for new customers during the time when the back book is seeing a price increase. Point being, if you want to gauge what happens once the price increases in the base, what the normalized level is compared to what we are seeing at the moment during this period?

Firstly, a good observer. The Playmobil guy is now standing in my office. So come visit me. I liked it so much. He's bold like me. Anyhow, that said, Rheinmetall, look, we are observing the growing importance of this defense sector. And we recognize the critical role this industry is playing. And by the way, the critical role telecommunication and data infrastructure is playing in this industry.

So therefore, it is not always us pushing. It is even the industry which is approaching us and saying, how can you help us, being it on 5G SA, being it on combat 5G, being it on campus solution, being it on sovereign cloud solutions, being it on our rollout activities which we are doing already with secure data analytics, being it our defense capabilities which we have in our EUR 500 million venture capital fund of DT Capital Partners. Our partnership, for instance, with Quantum-Systems has opened up a lot of new doors in the defense sector for us because they are working with us. And now we even have something to offer with the testing capabilities, which we have opened up in Munich because most of these defense companies, they're testing their AI functionalities in our data center here in Germany. So therefore, I think this is an opportunity.

Now the question is, what is for you [indiscernible] vertical. We have organized it as a vertical in T-Systems. That is why we are building it, plus the EUR 500 million defense fund, which is run by DT Capital Partners. We want to be symbiotic in this case so that we are combining the venture capital idea with the established T-Systems as a trusted partner for security, national authorities and certified people. So therefore, yes, we want to drive that for the DACH region. I do not see that we are now becoming in T-Mobile U.S. suddenly a defense supplier. I see that for the DACH region definitely. And I want to drive it from where the money sits today, and that sits in Germany.

So driving it from the German side. And that is why we are now going for this partnership with Rheinmetall. Now do we have any revenue expectations? Yes, for sure. But it's a little bit too early now to give you a clear revenue projections on this one. Let me see how we are developing it. But we want to develop this into [indiscernible] business model here. With regard to the German broadband, situation, yes, go ahead.

Yes. Maybe I take this one because I think you're referring to, let's say, elevated retention offers that we have done. But I think retention is a general -- I mean, I would call it churn management. This is something that we are working on as a matter of good practice and where we see improvements. And generally, we have seen less churn than we anticipated. So our customers are more loyal and more willing to tolerate these price increases maybe than we would have potentially feared. So I think we are quite happy with the market response so far. The price increases have landed well. Nevertheless, we are seeing some incremental churn, as you would expect. But again, it's less than we were anticipating.

But Hannes, you're playing -- downplaying that a little bit what Rodrigo and his team changed over the last months. And since we have called it mission critical that we are coming back to growth in the broadband market, which was, I think, in August, this team has really intensively worked on the churn prediction and the churn management here. So the data models, they show us already today potential churners, which we approach earlier.

Yes, there are some benefits which we're giving to the customers like some price adjustments for loyal customers who have been with us for years. Yes, in areas where we see that we do not have an immediate answer on fiber, we are offering a mobile substitute as an alternative. Yes, in areas where we see customers are churning, we are trying to convince them to stay with us. So there are win-back teams who are specialized on this one. Yes, for these customers, we have always a personal interaction, so less bot interactions. So they flag these customers.

So yes, there is a big initiative which is going on around that. We spent even some money in the envelope which we have laid out here to this one. In a world where you see that Germany's broadband market is slowing down significantly, and you see that all the numbers from the -- you have to focus on your customer base and your customer relationships. And that is what we are doing these days. So therefore, this is an area of focus, and I'm very happy how the team is approaching it.

Excellent. Thank you, Tim. And I think there are no further questions. So that brings us to the end of today's call. Thank you very much, everyone, for your participation. And should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Investor Relations team. We wish you all a very pleasant day and look forward to speaking with you again soon. Bye-bye.

See you soon. Bye.

Bye-bye, guys.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I would like to extend a warm welcome to you, and I hereby open this year's Annual General Meeting of Deutsche Telekom AG and assume the chair in accordance with the company's Articles of Association. On behalf of the Supervisory Board and the Management Board, I would like to warmly welcome you, the shareholders and shareholder representatives as well as the members of the press and our other guests here in Bonn.

If in German, I use the masculine form of address here, and in the course of this meeting, this is done solely for the sake of linguistic simplicity, the masculine form of address, of course, includes all genders. We are very pleased to welcome you once again physically here at the World Conference Center, Bonn, this year. With the exception of Ms. Schottke, the Supervisory Board is attending this year's Annual General Meeting in full. Ms. Schottke is unfortunately unable to attend for personal reasons.

The Management Board is present in full. On my left, I would like to welcome Dr.Markus [indiscernible] Notary Public, who is in charge of recording this Annual General Meeting. First, a few remarks regarding the venue. The main venue for today's meeting is this New York hall, including the gallery accessible to you from outside. And I see it is filling up. Great. You may also follow the proceedings via audio and video in the Nairobi 1 room.

The attendance area includes all rooms accessible to you after passing through the so-called accreditation area. So in addition to the rooms already mentioned, this also includes the outdoor area accessible from inside the building as well as all other adjacent rooms and areas accessible to you, including the lobby up to the exit and accreditation counters.

The registration desk is located here in the main room. On my right, at the far end of this hall. We also have set up an information desk for you. Again, it is located in the lobby on the entrance level. The shareholders and shareholder representatives present will be included in the list of attendees. This list is maintained electronically and is available with ongoing updates.

It can be viewed at the terminals. You will find these here in the main room at the back on the right and left as well as in the Nairobi 1 room. The notice convening the Annual General Meeting together with a complete agenda and the management's proposed resolutions on the announced agenda items was published in due form and time in the Federal Gazette on February 27, 2026, and was also published throughout Europe on the same day. A printout of the notice is available to the notary and can also be viewed at the registration desk.

The notary will attach a copy of the minutes as an appendix. At the registration desk, you may also review the documents related to today's Annual General Meeting in addition to the invitation and agenda that have been available on the company's website since the notice of the meeting was published.

The countermotions and nominations to be made available have been published on our company's website along with all necessary details. Copies of these are available at the registration desk as well as at the information desk in the lobby on the entrance level. The company has not received any motions to amend the agenda pursuant to Section 122 (2) of the German Stock Corporation Act. Today's Annual General Meeting will be broadcast live in full on the Internet and recorded for documentary purposes.

This opening statement as well as Mr. Hottges' speech and any further remarks by Mr. Hottges will be available online later. For the sake of good order, I would like to point out that the Management Board is assisted by back-office staff in recording the questions and preparing the answers. To ensure that the questions are recorded correctly, an audio recording will be made, which will subsequently be deleted.

Please understand that it is not permitted to make your own video or audio recordings of the meeting.

You have received an AGM card at the registration desks today. You will need your AGM card to exercise the rights that you have as a shareholder at today's meeting, in particular, your voting rights. In addition the AGM card contains all important information regarding leaving the meeting early as well as granting proxies and giving instructions. I hereby refer to this information.

The AGM card must be presented at the exit checkpoint if you leave the Annual General Meeting early. We will conduct the discussion on the agenda items in the form of a general debate. Each speaker may address all items on the agenda and ask questions regarding them. I would like to ask those shareholders who wish to exercise their right to speak or ask questions to please sign up at the registration desk over there by presenting their AGM card. There, you will receive sign-up forms, which you should please fill out and hand to a staff member at the registration desk. I would like to ask those shareholders who intend to speak to submit their requests for the floor as early as possible from now on. I will explain the voting procedure in detail immediately prior to voting. However, as a precaution, I would like to point out now that for the upcoming votes, votes may only be cast here in the main room. We will again be using a gong as an acoustic signal to indicate the start and end of the votes. I will now sound it once for demonstration purposes.

So after these organizational remarks, we will now proceed to the agenda. Agenda Item 1 is documents to be submitted to the Annual General Meeting pursuant to Section 176 sentence Clause 1 of the German Stock Corporation Act. Under this agenda item, the following documents, in particular, will be presented, the annual financial statements, the consolidated financial statements, the combined management report and group management report and the report of the Supervisory Board. These and other documents related to today's Annual General Meeting are available on the company's website. You may also view them at the information desk. In the lobby, you will also find terminals where you can view the online version of the annual report as well as the notice of today's Annual General Meeting, including the agenda in PDF format.

Ladies and gentlemen, I will now give the floor to Mr. Hottges for his report on behalf of the Management Board.

[Presentation]

Very good morning to you, dear shareholders. Do you like building things with LEGO? I love LEGO. And that's why I would like to build some LEGO with you today. As you just saw, we have built a gigantic AI factory that makes Germany more sovereign, and that will make it possible for us to use more AI applications here in Germany, and that also will represent a new field of business for Deutsche Telekom. So we've built this AI factory. We announced it in good time, but what is this AI factory all about? And how is the government? How are the big corporations handling all this sensitive data here in Germany in the future? Well, this factory is a story for itself, a 50% increase of the GPUs. So that's the graphic processes here in Germany. And we have 6 floors underground. There, we built a data center to manage all this data. But how does that work specifically? This is what I would like to talk about today. We have all the data. Our companies have a lot of highly sensitive patent-related data, scientific data, scientific know-how, et cetera. This know-how needs to be transferred to the cloud. How does that work via good networks? And who builds the best networks in Germany? Well, I'll leave it up to you to make a guess. Connectivity is the prerequisite for gathering the data and for making this data available to companies later on. And Telekom knows how to do that because connectivity is our core business, 4x 400 gigabits per second. These are the lines we are using to pump data into the data center and to extract that data again. And now lots of data is coming in from various companies, not coordinated, unstructured, et cetera, and a lot of highly sensitive data, too. So the next thing we need to do is we need to make sure that none of this data is getting lost. And that's why we need top security in line with the regulatory requirements here in Europe, but also to protect the companies themselves in the network and also outside of the network. TSEC is one of our business divisions that generates more than EUR 300 million in revenue, and it guarantees this security. It builds this security into our infrastructure to make sure that all this data can be transferred in a safe manner. And this has also been implemented in our AI factory. So now we've got all the data in the factory, but the big question is what are we going to do with all this unstructured data? And this is where TCloud comes into play. So what do we do with TCloud? TCloud gathers the data, structures the data, then files it redundantly, organizes it. And at the same time, the cloud makes sure that new data can be scaled as soon as AI helps us to gain new findings. Think of it as a wardrobe where you can save all your clothes, and we just do the same with data. And TCloud wasn't just developed last year. Deutsche Telekom has been working on this cloud for the past 10 years. We also refer to it as the sovereign cloud because it is only operated here in Germany and only run by Telekom in-house staff in a sovereign fashion and highly reliable. So now we've organized all this data, the wardrobe is full. But that doesn't mean that, that makes clothes any cleaner or that we have organized things perfectly. In order to do that, we bring in the infamous GPUs, the processors. You will remember the term CPUs. These are the processors that are working step-by-step. Now we have the so-called GPUs, the graphic processing units. And they look like this. And you are using the same thing in your PCs. This comes from my PC. This is the graphic card that my son is using for gaming. But we don't want them to game all the time, right, which is why I just removed this thing from his PC. And basically, this box here is nothing different from the graphic card from IPC, but it is much more efficient, much more powerful.

And by the way, this is what we need to make AI a reality. This box has 8 GPUs. It's an installation from NVIDIA. How much does it cost? EUR 350,000. And in our data center in Munich, we have 10,000 of these boxes installed. So you can probably imagine the computing power that is emerging there. These processes come from the best in this world. And I'm guessing, you also hold shares in NVIDIA. After all, this is the global market leader with the most efficient GPUs and processors in the world.

But probably, you still have a hard time figuring out how things actually work in a data center. And that's why we established a live connection to our underground section in the Tucherpark in Munich, [ Marta. ] Why don't you explain to us what you're doing there?

Hello, Tim. Dear shareholders. I'm in Munich right now. I'm 4 floors underground in our AI computing center, our data center. And this is a part where you have several CPUs interconnected. So let's go inside. But here's a warning. We're talking 115 decibels. So it's deafening. It's as if you know, a plane was about to take off next to me. Tim already showed you a single GPU. Here, we have around 500 of these GPUs, but that's why it's so loud in here, because we have hundreds of ventilators here. Tim, I hope that it won't be quite so deafening on the stage on your side unless it's because people are just giving you such a big hand here.

Right. Well, thank you so much, Marta. So we have countless highly efficient computers there from the company NVIDIA. And NVIDIA basically now processes all this data using very efficient devices. But then there are all sorts of different requirements for the systems that we are using. And this is what the so-called orchestration comes into play, and that's software. So we figured we don't want to be dependent on foreign software, maybe from the U.S., we want to use German or European software instead.

And ladies and gentlemen, we do that by way of the so-called Business Transformation Platform, BTP. I know these are terrible terms here. But after all, we are playing LEGO, right? So we are using BTP from the company, SAP.

What do we do with this BTP? Well, this platform can exchange data across different applications. It orchestrates the data as part of different industrial applications and then connects the application to the data center to achieve the targets that we have set for ourselves.

How do we do that? What sort of applications are we talking about that we are running in this data center in Germany today? The first thing that springs to mind is certainly Siemens. Siemens is one of the big users of our data center in Munich. And what do they do? Siemens, they are organizing industrial manufacturing processes. You see companies are building major industrial systems that need to be properly planned, set up, structured, optimized, so that we can achieve the highest level of productivity.

In the past, this was mostly done physically. You would build a production line and then test if it works. Today, this is optimized in virtual ways. We are using so-called digital twins. And this means that all the factories have a digital twin and then you can optimize them in the system, production lanes visualized, human intervention is visualized. Ultimately, you can simulate everything on a computer first, which makes -- which gives you far more time and it is much more cost efficient to do all these things in a digital twin instead of having to do it all physically.

And there's another application. And that's from Quantum Systems, another company. It's a company that used to build drones for civil purposes. Now they're also very active in Ukraine for reconnaissance purposes, and they are used for military purposes as well. Drones are flying autonomously. The missions they have need to be simulated in order for the drone to orientate itself.

And the drone is sort of trained in our data center. So we are talking about large volumes of data that need to be trained and the GPUs from NVIDIA make this possible highly efficiently in parallel mode. I could spend hours talking about this. I could tell you something about another company called Wandelbots, that is using robots in our AI data center. I could also tell you that all that is completely carbon-free, not just because the electricity comes from green energy, but also because we are using the ice pack for cooling. And we are using it for cooling and also for heating. And by the way, the fact that the wave didn't work, that wasn't because of us. That was far up in the north, not where our data center was set up in the south.

Ladies and gentlemen, Deutsche Telekom's data center in Munich, is a clear commitment to Germany, made for Germany, made in Germany. The factory processes data only in accordance with German law and is only run by German staff. Only the hardware, only the chipset currently does not come from Germany or Europe. Why not? Because unfortunately, we no longer offer this technology on our continent. If that was different, we would also use a European solution here. But NVIDIA has been our partner for a long time. We've worked with them for many years, and that's why we know that we can rely on them.

Because for me, sovereignty doesn't mean that we are trying to shut ourselves off. Sovereignty, ladies and gentlemen, means self-determination. And with our AI factory, starting from Deutsche Telekom's connectivity through security of telecom, Deutsche Telekom's Cloud and the software of SAP, all that means that we can give a sovereign answer to European companies when it comes to the question of how do we organize AI in Germany and Europe. Made in Germany, made for Germany. Thank you very much.

[Presentation]

My dear shareholders, IMT count on me. Everyone at Deutsche Telekom knows this sentence, and they put it in practice. 2025 was yet another record year. Despite the world becoming more unpredictable, more confusing, you might even say more out of control. There is so much we can no longer rely on, which is why dependability genuinely makes all the difference in these difficult times.

198,079 Deutsche Telekom employees work hard to keep connection secure even in times of crisis, to bring modern technology to everyone and to develop artificial intelligence, and that includes here in Europe. I think all Telekom staff members, thank you, that I can -- thank you for me being able to rely on you, all of you out there.

Shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, dependability is no empty promise for us. We prove it daily. Four things you can count on at Deutsche Telekom. First of all, we continue to grow. That's been promised and delivered. For 48 quarters in a row, Telekom has grown. In 2025, revenue was up 4.2%, more than EUR 119 billion. Earnings, up 4.7%, more than EUR 44.2 billion. Free cash flow, up 2%, EUR 19.5 billion, and earnings per share up 5.2%, EUR 2 per share.

Ladies and gentlemen, so you can see it. You can see that our strategy works. It has not changed in years. It is dependable. We call it the flywheel, but our strategy isn't complicated. It fits on a beer mat. So take this beer mat back with you. When you get together with your friends, talk about this with them. But every colleague here in this auditorium can tell you about our strategy, even I can.

First of all, we invest more than the competition, EUR 16.9 billion last year. That helps us gain new customers, 10 million last year. And if we gain more customers than our competition, we can utilize our network better. We are more efficient, and that allows us to earn more money. And because we earn more money, because we have better utilization, we can invest more.

So the flywheel keeps on turning. And it's even gaining momentum more than our competition. But partly powered by data and artificial intelligence, we want to be faster and better, and we have leverage and we leverage economies of scale that our competitors do not have. We draw strength from 2 continents, Europe and the United States, to accelerate this development.

We draw strength from 2 continents, Europe and the United States. That is no accident or geography. It's always been our strategic calculation and advantage. We unite stability and dynamism like no other telco globally, and we are growing on both sides of the Atlantic.

Just look at the stats. Earnings in Germany, up 1.7%. In the United States, up 5.3%. And especially strong in Europe, up 5.4%. And how did our -- the Chairman of our Supervisory Board's call it yesterday, our rising star, T-Systems, up 14.4%. So we're also reliable when it comes to our dividend. Our proposal is up 11%, EUR 1 per share. We have never paid more than that.

Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you'll agree to that. I hope I can rely on you. I hope you'll approve our proposal. My dear shareholders, dependability is not only about today's dividend. It's also about how we invest in the future.

And this brings me to my second point. We are building the best network, and we've always build the best network. The whole world is talking about AI. But without our infrastructure, AI would not have a voice. Without us, there would be no powerful AI economy in Europe or in the U.S.A. So that is how we make the digital future possible. We actively shape the transformation, not for just the private economy, but for industry as well.

How do we do this? AI needs data centers, and we build them. And AI needs networks because that's where what the data flows through and the question of who has the best network, there's actually just one answer to that, isn't there? Last year, we once again won all of the big tests. This morning, connect test, just another one. 12.6 million homes passed in Germany, that's 2.5 million households more than at the end of 2024. And our goal is 25 million homes by 2030 in Germany.

And what goes for Germany goes for Europe, where we have -- let's look at Europe where we've built fiber to 11.3 million homes. That's an additional 1.3 million and fiber is also in the United States, what we have opted, what we're pushing, where we have acquired 2 providers, Lumos and Metronet for an investment of EUR 4.8 billion.

Our mobile business is also progressing. 5G, for example, 36,450 cell towers are transmitting across Germany from Flensburg to Fussen in the Algoa region in the South. They cover more than 99% of the population with 5G. And in Europe, we achieved around 92%. That's a jump of 15 percentage points. And we lead in the United States, too, with the best 5G network covering around 98% of the population there.

Ladies and gentlemen, Deutsche Telekom has the best network. And that always makes the difference. We weren't the worst or the cheapest. We were a premium provider. We were perceived in Germany as having the best network, and that's what really makes the difference in all of our networks throughout the world, and you can rely on that going forward. We will continue to build out our network. We won't stop, and we will fight for every tower.

And this brings me to my favorite topic. My favorite topic. My hometown of Solingen, Highway 74. I know it from cycling on it, but it runs through a nature reserve. It's a protected habitat for crested newts and brook lampreys. And they have to say there. They say, and that means no tower by my pond. For years, we've been searching for a solution there. And finally, we have found one.

Now a 25-meter tower is transmitting there, on the side of a wastewater treatment plant. And what worked in Solingen, though, unfortunately, won't work everywhere. Some locations remain inaccessible even for us, too boggy, too rocky, too densely forested. That is why we will be enhancing our mobile network with satellite tech connectivity from 2027 on. This will bring coverage to everybody, even where we say good night to crested newts and brook lampreys.

Ladies and gentlemen, I love nature. But Germany doesn't need an either/or. It needs as well as flora, fauna and forward progress. I call them the 3 Fs. And that's what we need here. There cannot be a prosperity without progress. And for that, we need the right underlying framework in place here in Germany. The good news is change is afoot. Permits for mobile and fiber are now going faster than ever before. The federal government has finally changed the rules at long last. Thank you.

But just when you think it can't get any worse, another law comes around the corner. First example, our competitors are demanding we switch off our copper network. Once they have laid fiber to a locality where we have copper, then they're saying that Deutsche Telekom's copper network has to be switched off. But there's even more. We're supposed to switch our network off, but Vodafone, which offers a cable network, doesn't have to. And it's also copper. So I've built out a network. And if you look at it, that's nothing other than copper. This cable network, this is from the competition here.

And why should Deutsche Telekom's copper network be switched off when Vodafone's copper network continue to be used? That's what they're using. I don't get it.

And sometimes I wonder what is going on in Germany. We have been pushing for competition in the infrastructure since 1995. Infrastructural competition. And now we want to have new fiber optic monopolies. That doesn't make any sense. It would be better to first everybody to build out fiber and then leave it up to the customers to decide which provider they want to have. Then we would have competition and also customers would have the option to switch from copper to fiber.

Here's a second example. Already at present, hundreds of authorities watch over Europe's digital industrial sector. Yet Brussels wants more regulation. The digital network that is being built is leading to more red tape for us. I'm confident that the politicians in Europe and policymakers want the right thing, but Europe will not achieve independence without scale. And that's why we must not micro regulate. That's why we have to allow consolidation here in Europe so that we can compete with the heavyweights from America or China or other markets, so we can keep pace with them.

And another thing we need, we need fair competition. The text message is a text message or am I wrong? Whether it's an SMS or a WhatsApp, it's actually the same. Isn't it? Or with self-service through -- if I use a satellite or the mobile network, I'm just phoning, it's the same service. But why is only the telecom industry regulated, but satellites or over-the-top Internet games are not? I'm of the opinion that in this new modern world, with so many applications and technologies, there has to be one rule and one rule only, the same services, the same rules. And that's what I'm pushing for right now in Berlin and in Brussels. Because we have to be -- we have to prepare for the new technologies coming our way.

My dear shareholders, the future cannot be an away game. It has to be a home game, and we're attending to this. And you can take that to the bank. And that brings me to my third point. We bring artificial intelligence to people and business. AI, ladies and gentlemen, artificial intelligence is the greatest gift for our economy.

Yes, I said, the greatest gift. We can pick up the pace with AI. It can accelerate many tasks that are slow right now. AI could safeguard quality and reduce mistakes. And AI could also help where specialists are in short supply. And that goes especially for Germany as a whole, but it also applies to Deutsche Telekom, which is why we are turning abstract possibilities into concrete reality.

AI accelerates. It safeguards quality, and it helps to compensate for the shortage of specialist skills. We use AI in all our areas of the company. AI finds faults in the network and repairs them. It provides summaries. It analyzes markets. It codes, it analyzes markets. It provides legal advice.

And ladies and gentlemen, you'll be able to answer the question I'm going about to ask. It can -- it's transcribing the questions you raised today and telecom developed this in the guise of AskT and provides you an answer. So we will finish early today.

But ladies and gentlemen, artificial intelligence will never take control for us. Decisions will remain in the hands of people. My dear shareholders, what we do for ourselves, we also do for our customers. And the tools we use, we also make available to you, our customers. That's a huge opportunity for further growth.

Let me take another example of consumers. The next level of dependability is the network things, a proactively thinking network. We are reinventing the phone call. This year, because this year, we're building a so-called AI assistant in our network. So when you're telephoning and you need support from AI, you just have to say, just like in your car when you're driving along, hey, Magenta, what -- will the weather be like on the weekend? Can I go for a walk? What's the best restaurant near me? Hey, Magenta, can we make an appointment? And AI will look into your time schedule to see when there's a good date for an appointment.

The network translates conversations, if it's another language, and it does that in real time. That's the future, and it's on any device, too. And that means the network is getting smarter, and we'll be able to perform more. And what's really great about this is that it works in the fixed work exactly the same way as it does in the mobile network on any device. It doesn't matter how old the devices are. It's independent of that, whether it's a Nokia 3310, even with its old cell phone, AI works. And that's what I call innovation through artificial intelligence. But don't worry. Security and data privacy have top priority for us. The assistant only responds when it's called upon. And it doesn't store any data, any of your data. Data security is insured in any situation.

Let me give you a second example, our business customers. And you know we have almost EUR 15 billion in revenue with business customers. But we want to get better here, too, and that creates extra potential when we use AI here. I showed you the AI factory just a few minutes ago. Every company can use the factory. There's no excuse anymore to say, I don't want to have my computer on a foreign infrastructure. Anybody who wants to work with AI can do it here in Germany. They have complete control over the data, the application and the technology. That is independence made in Germany.

But AI is only at the beginning. We will continue to expand it further. And I invite every company in Germany and Europe to use this to seize the opportunities offered by AI. It is making Germany and Europe competitive once again. And you have a dependable partner at your side in Deutsche Telekom, contributing a lot of the components to the system right now. And T-Systems is the reliable partner in this build-out.

Ladies and gentlemen, Deutsche Telekom keeps its promises. But nobody, nobody is credible if they claim they never make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. We do too, so do I. And that's why my fourth point is, we keep on learning. I'm going to tell you what I mean with 3 examples. First, broadband in Germany. We underestimated the fiber build-out and how long it would take. It is dragging on. But we are winning customers everywhere, but lost some in our home market of all places, 50,000 in total from 15 million, perhaps not too many. But every customer we lose, that hurts. That's a pain point.

And we are solving this by investing even more and by building more fiber, especially in rural areas, because we see that demand, especially in rural areas is greater than in cities. In buildings with multiple dwellings, we often have the problem that customers don't want us to drill in the walls. So we developed a new technology, adhesive cables.

This fiber optic cable can simply be stuck along the floor or at the top of the wall. So there's no more drilling through ceilings, no more drilling in the wall. Sticking is the new drilling.

Second, B2B business. Competition in this area in Germany is extremely intense. And I'll admit, we were arrogant, too arrogant. We rested on our laurels for too long, relying on old products and also old structures. But that's changing. We're changing it. We don't just sell the best network, but also everything on top. We want to offer the full package as tech partner, storage space in our data centers, security for your data, security developed from the network itself and applications for AI. That's what we want to roll out for our business customers and also, at the same time, develop new potential to generate revenue.

Third example, only 24.2% of our managers globally are women. That's not enough. We can be better here, and we need to be better here. Actually, we do a great deal. We have a performance culture, irrespective of gender. Of course, we pay equal salaries for men and women. We offer career networks, especially for women. We have strong role models like Dominique Leroy, who heads our Europe business or Birgit Bohle, our CHRO. And also our CEOs in Czechia and Croatia, Melinda Szabo and Natasa Rapaic, they're women. But we will only solve this problem -- truly solve this problem when we ourselves change. And when I say we, I mean, we men in management.

My dear shareholders, every day, we get a little bit better. We've been successful and more successful than any other tech telecom company in Europe for years now. And that's come to feel normal, but it's not. If you look behind the magenta curtain, you'll see that things are getting more difficult for us, too. Costs are rising faster than our prices, because of the intense competition, we can't just pass on costs even though costs are rising from our suppliers. We have to permanently safeguard supply chains where in the past, it was taken for granted that they were secure.

For example, we had the crisis with memory chips worldwide. And we need to improve our productivity continuously. That means reduce our costs, produce at lower cost, and we have to continually look to see where T as a brand can set itself off and differentiate itself from the competition. We are the #1, and everybody is shooting for number one. And that means [ at us, ] also new technology, Starlink and new satellite providers could become a threat to our industry if their plans are realized. So dependability is not a given. We have to redouble our efforts to defend this leadership, and it takes hard work. And we are rolling up our shirt sleeves, and we'll continue to grow this year.

This brings me to the forecast. This year, we expect earnings of up to be up 6% and to achieve EUR 47.4 billion. With free cash flow, we're planning to grow 3% to EUR 19.8 billion in free cash flow this year. And with earnings per share, we're also planning an increase in 10% to EUR 2.20. So that's good news. That's good news for you, ladies and gentlemen, because you know 40% to 60% of the result we want to pay out to you. So there is good news from the German economy as well.

And with all the criticism -- why don't they try to reproduce our results? Why are we successful? It's because of our corporate culture. We call it T-Style. And our corporate culture describes the way we want to be and the way we want to work, T-style. First of all, we want to resolutely cut back the red tape in our company. We map society at telecom and all this red tape in Germany doesn't help anybody. But you have to start at your own company and reduce red tape there. Often, we are not in traffic. We are the traffic, and that's where we need to get better and improve things.

Second, radical collaboration. Developing ideas together in this factory here, without mistrust across all areas, across all the countries. Because together, our company can't be beat. And the group is always stronger than the individual.

Third, performance. If everyone in their area wants to be #1, that's what will make us a leading digital telco in the world. It may sound abstract to you, but that's day in, day out here, and it has a real impact. At the start of this year, a blackout hit Berlin, the lights went out, because of sabotage on the power grid. And that meant no mobile service either.

29 Deutsche Telekom sites were affected, but our network was back up and running faster than any of our competitors' networks. Why? Because our people were immediately there. They are immediately on site getting on with the job of fixing things. And we gave unlimited data to all of the customers who were affected as a gift, so they could make the necessary arrangements.

That's what I think T-style should be all about. Because it's not about the networks. It's not only about networks. It's not only about data centers and AI. It's about we as telecom being dependable. That's the proposition. Because dependability, ladies and gentlemen, that is earned when words align with actions.

Dependability comes about when people take responsibility. Dependability comes about when we are there when we are needed. And especially in a world where everything has become more uncertain, this dependability, this T that makes all the difference. Our strong corporate culture has brought us far, but we're not satisfied there. We are more than the telco with the most valuable brand at present. We are a trusted technology partner. We have growth ideas. We digitalize the world with the best networks. And for me and for everyone at this company, IMT count on me. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your remarks, Mr. Hottges. Ladies and gentlemen, this is now a wonderful opportunity to thank the Board of Management and all employees of Deutsche Telekom for their excellent work in the past fiscal year. And I'm doing this, I believe, also on behalf of you, the shareholders. And you applauded, Mr. Hottges. So, I would like to thank you, Mr. Hottges, the Board of Management and all the employees of the company.

Ladies and gentlemen, I now give the floor to Dr. Illek to briefly explain the 2025 and 2026 share buyback programs. Mr. Illek?

Yes. Thank you very much. Dear shareholders, in accordance with the requirements of Section 71(3) Sentence 1 of the Stock Corporation Act, I would like to briefly inform you about the share buyback programs. In the year 2025, the share buyback program started on the 3rd of January 2025 and ended on the 11th of December. As part of this share buyback program, a total of 65,412,156 own shares of the company were repurchased. It accounts for a proportionate amount of the share capital of EUR 167,455,119.36, which is approximately 1.3% of the existing share capital.

The average purchase price per share was EUR 30.58. The total amount of the share buybacks under the 2025 share buyback program amounted to EUR 1,999,999,212. Most of the Deutsche Telekom shares acquired as part of the 2025 share buyback program will be redeemed. And this will take place at the end of the year, and it is intended to mitigate the dilutive effect. And this will be -- the money will be used to service executive compensation programs and employee share purchase plans.

In November of this year, we announced that we would continue to conduct a share buyback program in 2026. The first program has a volume of up to EUR 2 billion. The first tranche began on the 5th of January until the 26th of March, and we acquired 15,598,603 shares. It accounts for a proportionate amount of the share capital, and it corresponds to 0.32% of the existing share capital.

The average purchase price per share in the first quarter was EUR 30.22. The total amount of the buybacks of the first tranche amounted to EUR 471,302,675.54. Most of the buyback program will be -- most of the shares in the buyback program will be redeemed in the coming year, and we want to mitigate the dilution effect of the 2021 capital increase, but it's also in line with the capital allocation strategy communicated at the Capital Markets Day 2024. And a small proportion of the acquired shares will be used for executives and employee profit sharing programs. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Mr. Illek, for your explanations. Dear shareholders, this brings me to the Supervisory Board report, which we will find in our annual report starting on Page 8. I would like to give you a brief oral report. I already mentioned that the full report will be found in the annual report.

The Supervisory Board continued to closely monitor the management of business by the Board of Management. Last year, we had 36 meetings, 6 plenary sessions, 1 off-site and 29 committee meetings. The participation rate was 97%, and the only people missing were missing because of sickness. The cooperation with the Board was and is very good and based on trust. Due to the high frequency of meetings, we are in close contact with the Board of Management, and we have a regular exchange. The written and oral reports of the Board of Management served as an essential basis for the fulfillment of our statutory monitoring tasks.

The Supervisory Board has regularly discussed the current situation of the company at its meetings. The Board of Management has complied with its duty to provide information comprehensively and promptly. The content and scope of the reports met the specified requirements. Between the meetings, the Board also reported on individual questions in writing or in discussions.

In addition, I exchanged ideas with the Board of Management and especially the Chairman of the Board of Management, Mr. Hottges. On the basis of its audits and the auditor's report, the Supervisory Board has come to the conclusion that there are no reasons to doubt the appropriateness and effectiveness of the internal control systems established by the Board of Management and the risk and opportunity management system. We discussed and examined in detail the transactions and measures that the Board of Management submitted to us for approval in the 2025 financial year, and we have approved the measures presented in each case.

The auditors audited the annual financial statements, the consolidated financial statements as well as the combined management and group management report and issued an unqualified audit opinion in each case. The Board of Management and the auditors explained the financial statements in detail to the Audit and Finance Committee as well as to the full Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board approved the annual financial statements and the consolidated financial statements after its own review at its meeting on February 25. The annual financial statements are thus adopted.

Let me briefly mention the main focus points of the work of the Supervisory Board, and it will not be a surprise, because it's always our focus. Annual and consolidated financial statements, implementation of the group strategy and the development of the segments, and this is what we mainly do in the Strategy, ESG and Innovation Committee, Dividend policy and share buybacks. The market and competitive situation, of course, has kept us busy last year, because of many changes among our competitors.

Then the financial and debt situation. Then ESG, environmental, social and corporate governance issues. Of course, we took a look at this, and we saw, as Mr. Hottges mentioned this, how important carbon emissions are -- or the reduction of carbon emissions are for the group. Budget and annual financing plan for 2026 and midterm planning until 2029. Personnel matters, and I will go into the details in a moment. Then the adjustment of Supervisory Board remuneration, I will also discuss this in more detail in a moment, and we will also have a resolution on this topic today.

Let me now talk about the situation of the company. The year 2025 was, again, a strong and successful year for Deutsche Telekom, as Mr. Hottges explained, despite strategic and structural challenges in a volatile macroeconomic environment characterized by geopolitical tensions.

Revenue, and I would like to repeat this, rose by 4.2% to EUR 119.1 billion. The adjusted EBITDA AL grew strongly by 4.7% to EUR 44.2 billion. The adjusted net income rose by 3.7% to EUR 9.7 billion. Mr. Hottges already explained all these figures in detail. And yesterday, we also said goodbye to 2 Supervisory Board members who came to the Supervisory Board in 2012 and 2013, Mrs. Kollmann and Mr. Streibich, and we compared the figures between 2012 when you joined and today and the figures at least doubled, the share price even quadrupled in this time, and this goes to show the big progress that the company has made.

The group is on a growth trajectory and is industry leader. The business developed well in all areas. With its strategy to be the leading digital telecommunications company, Deutsche Telekom is well prepared for the opportunities and challenges of the future. The company has thus laid a very good foundation for further success. The good business result confirms the excellent work of the Board of Management, and I would like to thank Mr. Hottges and his team, but of course, also all the employees for their success.

On the basis of the results achieved in 2025, the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board are proposing a dividend of EUR 1 per share in line with the dividend policy. Now it is important to consistently pursue Deutsche Telekom's strategy, which Mr. Hottges has clearly explained. I'm confident that the Board of Management and the employees will continue to demonstrate the strength of Deutsche Telekom.

Ladies and gentlemen, I now come to the personnel matters in the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board. As already reported in the annual -- in the last Annual General Meeting, the Supervisory Board made a number of personnel decisions in January 2025. Mr. Hottges was reappointed until the end of 2028, and we are very happy about this. Mr. Gopalan's Board mandate has ended. He is now -- he used to be the Chief Operating Officer at T-Mobile U.S. and is now the CEO of T-Mobile U.S. since November 1. And we are very happy that he is leading this business.

As Mr. Gopalan's successor, Mr. Diehl became a Board member of the Board of Management for the German segment, and he is here for the second time, because we already did this in the beginning of last year. Yes, this is worth an applause. This is not in my script, but we are extremely happy with what Mr. Diehl has done for Deutsche Telekom in the past month, although it was a very challenging year.

In May of last year, we agreed to the resignation of Mrs. Nemat from the Board of Management at the end of September. Mrs. Nemat had previously stated that she did not want to renew her contract after 14 years on the Board. She used to be a member of the Board of Management responsible for technology and innovation. And I would like to thank her very much for the outstanding work over 14 years. I wish her a great success. She has really shaped the company for a very long time, and I would like to thank her very much indeed.

As a successor to Mrs. Nemat, we appointed Dr. Mudesir as of the 1st October 2025. You probably ask, where is he. He is not here today because last week, he said that he wanted to terminate the mandate with immediate effect, and this is why he is not here today. Dr. Mudesir is leaving the company to take on new professional role abroad. I would like to thank Dr. Mudesir for his commitment in the past 8 years and wish him all the best for his future career. Until a successor is found for him, Dr. Illek has taken over the duties of Dr. Mudesir on an interim basis, in addition to his usual function. And I think that as a natural scientist, Mr. Illek also has a very good background in order to successfully lead this segment.

And we thus also have continuity in the key area for the group and Deutsche Telekom's strategic orientation remains unchanged. The implementation of the priorities in the Management Board area of Product and Technology will continue seamlessly. This brings me to the Supervisory Board. There were no personnel changes among employee representatives in the last fiscal year. Among the shareholder representatives, there were the following changes. Mrs. Empey, Mrs. Knight and Mr. Ramge were elected to the Supervisory Board by the last AGM.

And at the end of this AGM, Mrs. Kollmann and Mr. Streibich will leave the Supervisory Board. At this point, I would like to say very clearly that we are very grateful to Mrs. Kollmann and Mr. Streibich for their excellent work over the past years. And Mrs. Kollmann has chaired the Audit and Finance Committee for a long time, and I also took part in the meetings. She did a wonderful job with great clarity, and she also supported the CFO. So I would like to thank Mrs. Kollmann very much for the work she has done.

Mr. Streibich, based on his experience in the IT industry of Software AG has helped us make the company what it is today and also the strategy was influenced by him. So he helped us quite a lot. And you see that we've gotten 2 new candidates today coming from the area, IT technology, AI, and we found good replacements for Mr. Streibich. But nevertheless, I would like to thank you for the excellent work you have done for the company. Thank you very much for the successful work in the past.

And of course, I also would like to thank all the other Supervisory Board members for the excellent work. It was always great to work with you. At the end of today's Annual General Meeting, the terms of office of Mr. Wintels and myself will end. And this is why we will propose to the Annual General Meeting that both Mr. Wintels and I will be reelected. We both love these activities, and we would be very grateful if you showed your trust in our work.

Furthermore, Dr. Dohmke and Dr. Hottges are proposed for election to the Supervisory Board. Dr. Dohmke is an experienced technology CEO and entrepreneur in the field of software development. He used to chair GitHub, leading global developer platform owned by Microsoft and has extensive leadership experience in a global digital company. He has in-depth know-how in software development and product strategy as an engineer with a doctorate in mechanical engineering and in computer engineering. He combines technological excellence with practical industry experience. He has broad international experience from Europe and U.S.A., and he will introduce himself.

Thank you very much, and good morning. I'm pleased to be here with you in Bonn today and to present myself. I don't come from Bonn. I grew up in Berlin, Marzahn. And while I was still in school, I worked for telecom for 3 weeks in order to equip the installers with what they needed for the work. I studied at the Technical University of Berlin, and I had the first flood with ISDN, and this was really very good for me because I could use the technology. And then I went to Mercedes-Benz and DaimlerChrysler in Stuttgart, Sindelfingen. So I moved from Berlin to Stuttgart. I met my wife. And in 2007, I really loved the iPhone. I bought an iPhone in Stuttgart. And after my activities in -- at Mercedes and Bosch, I started my own business for mobile applications and developer platforms.

In 2014, Microsoft from Redmond in the United States bought my company, the second German company that was ever bought by Microsoft. And with my wife and my 2 children, babies at the time, I moved from Stuttgart to Seattle, where I still live today.

Over the past 10 years, I continued the career at Microsoft and now -- and I became CEO of GitHub. You can imagine that this is like the DIY store for software developers. You can buy great equipment there, great material. This is what you get. From GitHub open source software, but you also find a lot of other nerds that you can talk to. And this is exactly what is important for GitHub, not only the software, but the worldwide collaboration.

Last summer, I decided to leave Microsoft and GitHub after more than 10 years in order to have my own business again, and I'm now building up a start-up entire to develop more software. When I look back to the past 30 years, starting with the Commodore 64, which I started with, to today, where we have the strongest computer always on us with the smartphone, then I still remember the time before the technology. I know a world without the Internet and now suddenly, we can solve all the problems. I remember the time without a smartphone at the university where we could really work concentratedly with the professors. And I remember a time before the cloud and after the cloud and Mr. Hottges already reported about artificial intelligence a lot.

At Microsoft, I was involved in the development of Copilot together with my colleagues and now AI is really a firm part of our world. I really look forward, and I hope that I can support the Supervisory Board with my perspective from the United States right next to the Microsoft headquarters in Bellevue, in Washington, and I look forward to supporting the Supervisory Board with energy, with power, with passion and also with my perspective as a software developer.

And now I would like to thank you very much for your attention, and I hope that you will elect me to become a member of the Supervisory Board.

Mr. Dohmke, we are very much looking forward to the cooperation. I'm firmly convinced that the AGM will agree to your election, and we would be very happy about it. You just presented yourself and you showed very clearly why we in the Supervisory Board would be very happy to have you as a member. You will give us a lot of expertise, but you also rejuvenate the Board.

And this is also true for the second candidate, Dr. Herzig, who is the member of the extended Board of SAP. As a Chief AI Officer, he implemented the SAP strategy, and it's also part of our AI factory. He has strong qualifications in AI and cloud transformation with his degrees in business informatics and computer science. He combines technological depth and business understanding. He will now introduce himself via the video message.

Dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to present myself today as a candidate for being a member of the Supervisory Board. My name is Philipp Herzig and I would like to tell you what is especially important for me. What can technology do today and in the future? How can we gain a lot of good for everybody in the industry and in society?

Technology will ensure our -- or will guarantee our wealth and our progress. At SAP, I was allowed to have an end-to-end responsibility for technology, and this has opened my view on technology and helped me how we can tackle our challenges in small steps. As a Chief Technology Officer, I'm now responsible for the entire AI strategy of SAP and I also try to bring various perspectives together as member of the [ Forschungszentrum, ] as a member of the research center for AI and as a member of the working group for living systems.

I live in Potsdam, close to Berlin. And I love to travel with my wife and my 3 children and I also love music, acoustics and my e-guitar is not only a hobby but shows how opposites, creativity and technology can best be combined. Because at the end of the day, it's always important to use technology as human beings and I would like to bring technology and human beings together of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom is the backbone of our economy and is playing a key part in Germany and Europe and beyond. And this a huge opportunity to use data-driven sovereignty in order to create long-term value for Deutsche Telekom, the employees and owners.

It would be a great honor and responsibility to support Deutsche Telekom in the Supervisory Board on its path, successful path in the future. And I would be extremely happy if you entrusted me with this job, and I wish you a good AGM.

Well, now what I said regarding Mr. Dohmke is also true for Dr. Herzig. We are very happy to propose him today. He is even younger than Mr. Dohmke, and this will definitely help us on our path. He brings exactly the qualifications that we lost with Mr. Streibich and Mr. Hinrichs last year. Only he is younger, and this will definitely also help us a lot. So I would be extremely pleased if the 4 proposals could find your approval today. And at this point, I can also tell you that we already won 2 women last year. So this year, we were free. We did not have to meet any women's quotas, and we looked around in order to find highly qualified people with a lot of experience in the United States as Mr. Dohmke is showing.

The CVs of the candidates can be found in the invitation. And now I can only tell you that the Supervisory Board thinks that the candidates are excellent and they also, of course, are in line with the competency and qualification profiles. This brings me to corporate governance.

As you can see from the annual report, Deutsche Telekom complied with the recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code in 2025 with the exception of one deviation last year. This was about the early reappointment of Mr. Hottges, for which we felt that there were special circumstances. In fiscal year 2026, Deutsche Telekom will fully comply with the code's recommendations.

Finally, I would like to briefly talk about the Supervisory Board compensation. Under agenda Item 9, we propose that the remuneration of the Supervisory Board to be adjusted. We reviewed the appropriateness and customary nature of the current remuneration and the audit has shown that the current structure of the compensation is customary and sensible. The structure will, therefore, remain unchanged. A comparison with other DAX companies, however, has shown that Deutsche Telekom Supervisory Board compensation is too low in relation to its size and importance. Against this background, the Supervisory Board considers an increase necessary.

The individual proposed adjustments can be found in the invitation under agenda Item 9. For example, the basic remuneration is to increase from EUR 100,000 to EUR 115,000. Ladies and gentlemen, let me summarize. The financial year 2025 was successful. The Supervisory Board closely monitors the work of the Board of Management on the basis of a legally compliant and effective corporate governance. Deutsche Telekom is strategically well aligned operationally clearly on course for growth and in a good financial position due to a solid balance sheet and a strong free cash flow. So the Board of Management has laid a good foundation for mastering future challenges.

Dear shareholders, thank you very much for your attention and the Supervisory Board report.

I will now call the agenda Items 2 through 11. Please refer to the invitation to the Annual General Meeting published in the Federal Gazette for the wording of these agenda items and the corresponding proposed resolution from the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board.

With regard to agenda Item 2, I would like to add the following. As part of share matching plans, treasury shares, that is shares of the company were transferred to planned participants during the current financial year. In addition, the company repurchased treasury shares, as you've heard before. As a result, the total number of shares entitled to dividends has decreased compared to the figures stated in the invitation. The Management Board and Supervisory Board have therefore adjusted their proposed resolution for agenda Item 2 as announced in the invitation to the AGM for this scenario.

Management Board and Supervisory Board accordingly proposed the following resolution. The net income of EUR 27,950,505,361.03 generated in the 2025 financial year shall be appropriated as follows: distribution of a dividend of EUR 1 per dividend-bearing share totaling EUR 4,822,437,582 (sic) [ EUR 4,829,175,330 ] and carryover of the remaining amount to new account amounting to EUR 23,128,067,779.03 (sic) [ 23,121,330,031.03 ].

The proposed resolution on the appropriation of profits as amended is available for review on the company's website and at the information desk. I will now announce the current attendance numbers of shareholders present.

So attendance at the AGM of Deutsche Telekom, 3,432,520,800 shares, which corresponds to EUR 8,787,247,000. That's EUR 12 billion share capital. Also mail in votes of 29,859,000 shares were received. So 3,452,377,805 individual shares are present or represented by mail in votes, which corresponds to 70.38% of the share capital. This brings me to the general debate.

I have a few organizational remarks. As the Chair of the meeting, I am guided by the German Corporate Governance Code, which stipulates that an AGM should conclude after no more than 4 to 6 hours. With this in mind, I will ensure that today's Annual General Meeting proceeds efficiently. To ensure that we serve the interest of all shareholders present and in light of the requests for the floor, which are already over 20, I am limiting speaking and question time from the outset to 10 minutes per speaker. Please stick to this time allotment. Experience here and at other AGMs has shown that 10 minutes should be sufficient to adequately address even complex issues.

You will be informed about the progress of your speaking and question time via the display attached to the lectern. If the progress of the meeting makes it necessary, I will further limit the speaking and question time. The Management Board will answer questions after a small number of speakers have asked their questions. I will personally answer questions that are directed to the Supervisory Board. The Management Board has stated that to the extent it does not disagree with my answers, it will endorse them.

Questions having identical content and those on closely related topics from different shareholders will be answered only once in a summary form in the interest of all shareholders and to maintain the focus of the meeting. I would like to ask shareholders who have a personal concern as customers of this company not to raise this during the general discussion, but to contact customer service representatives instead. Please visit the customer service desk in the lobby on the entrance level. In the interest of all shareholders, we will not answer questions that are not relevant to the agenda during the general discussion.

So this brings me to the first block of questions. Ingo Speich, is first. Analyst, Schmidt and Mr. Henrik Pontzen.

Mr. Speich, the floor is yours.

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Ingo Speich. I represent Deka Investment, one of the big funds in Germany and a subsidiary of DekaBank. It's great to be here at the lectern in Bonn. And just looking around here, it's not just myself who is pleased about this physical meeting, but also the many shareholders who have come to this meeting. Only in this way can we have a real dialogue, which is indispensable for shareholder culture in Germany.

The past 12 months for us, shareholders have been nerve racking. The fluctuations of the share price were immense. If you look at the share price development, we are slightly below the level of last year's AGM, including the dividend. The STOXX 600 Index in this time actually is 20% higher than German Telecom's share price. As a long-term investor, after the strong increase of the previous years, we can live with this. Telecom has proven that it has a growth DNA.

Mr. Hottges, you made this impressively clear today. But our core question is, where is the high growth supposed to come from in the next few years? For the future viability of German telecom, we see 4 key issues. First, expansion and competitiveness of T-Mobile in the United States; secondly, the future of your German business; third, sustainability; and fourth, succession planning and the future Supervisory Board and Management Board.

On T-Mobile U.S., the systematic positioning and growth in the U.S. fulfill our growth ideas. T-Mobile has grown from an underdog to one of the most modern and most successful mobile networks, is a major success. More than 2/3 of Deutsche Telekom's cash flow come from the U.S. Dependency is enormous, and there are some clouds gathering on the U.S. market. There is more uncertainty and this high level of dependency are an explosive mix.

Now T-Mobile is now basically top dog in the U.S. market, but more investments have to be made into fiber and the mobile network and also fixed wireless. There have been some important incentives from this part of the business, but there can be limits to the growth in the next 5 years. If there are new players like Starlink, for example, other tech companies will have a growing interest in resources and satellite-based communication.

What specific spectrum strategy are you pursuing in order to safeguard your leadership position, especially against the backdrop of new competitors, also satellite competitors? How can you make sure that profitable growth will continue, not just in the case of T-Mobile U.S.?

Let's look at Germany. Deutsche Telekom has established a very strong brand, which is associated in many customers' minds with reliability and dependence. And many customers are willing to pay a premium price for this. However, the environment is more complicated and DSL rates, for example, are very much affected by this. Can you show how the Net Promoter Score has developed in Germany over the past few years and what targets you have set yourself in the context of recent price increases? When have you reached the end of this strategy?

In terms of fiber build-out, we see German telecom as a real pioneer in Germany. But for us, investors, what's most important to us is not to have fiber installed, but really connected to the home and also upselling into higher rates is an important growth driver, but also a foundation for better efficiency. So here, we support your target to abandon the old copper cables. But what's your road map for the shutting off of copper in Germany in terms of time line, also in terms of regulatory requirements? And what will be the cost effects for the new fiber networks?

Another hotly debated issue at the capital market is capital allocation of Deutsche Telekom, especially the ratio of investment and share buybacks. In the past, you did an impressive balancing act, massive investment into networks and on the other hand, reliable payouts and your share buyback program. Against the backdrop of high investment in 5G, fiber and IT platforms, for long-term investors like ourselves, the question is, how do you prioritize your means?

Growth investment continued dividends and further share buybacks. How are you going to balance this? And what are your KPIs for this? Also, the leverage ratio is relevant against the backdrop of your high investment. Now will your growth remain robust? What happens if T-Mobile gets into stormy waters, then you will face the question of whether to do without the cash flow generated in the U.S. or to reduce your equity investment?

Now Deutsche Telekom is a leading international telco and also highlights digitalization and use of AI. You've pointed out many use cases of AI, both in internal and external processes. For Deutsche Telekom, these technology examples have to make a clear contribution also to the bottom line. What is the specific contribution that all of this can make to your bottom line and to further efficiency? And how do you measure these contributions internally?

Ladies and gentlemen, let's move on to sustainability. You're all following developments in the U.S., I'm sure, withdrawal from international climate agreements and an abandonment of climate protection policies. Now we are wondering today how these changes initiated by the U.S. government impact Deutsche Telekom, especially in terms of climate and diversity? Have you made any adjustments in the past 12 months regarding this? If yes, which? Are you still committed to your diversity policy? We welcome the voluntary reporting in the past financial year according to the new standards. Now are you going to put diversity and climate on the agenda of next year's AGM? Then this would highlight your climate strategy, would stand a strong message to the public and also to us as investors and other stakeholders.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's move on to management succession and governance. Good governance means to have a timely succession planning to have it transparent and international. Mr. Diehl, the new Head of German business, this is the first beginning, but succession in other positions remains a key issue.

Mr. Hottges, you have left an imprint on telecom, very successful imprint and have shaped the company. You have to do some careful planning to find a successor for you. This will be an important part of your responsibilities also of the Supervisory Board. So my question to Supervisory Board is, how detailed is your succession planning for a successor to Mr. Hottges and other leadership positions? How can you make sure that Telecom's successful path will be continued in the future?

And finally, on our voting behavior, as in the past year, we will vote against ratification of the actions of the Management Board. And also the Audit Committee, we didn't consider it to be independent against the backdrop of the very complex balance sheet structure, the Audit Committee plays a special role. So we are going to -- not to ratify the actions of the Supervisory Board. We welcome the new candidates to the Supervisory Board, because this will strengthen our or your U.S. expertise, meeting some of our conditions. Also, you're rejuvenating the Supervisory Board.

We agree with you, Dr. Appel, when you said that to reappoint you to the Chair of the Supervisory Board, but you have 2 other mandates. So Mr. Wintels also has one mandate to many. With regard to other agenda items, we agree with the proposed resolutions of the Management Board. So we from Deka Investment, wish all of you at Deutsche Telekom the best of success in your decisions and hope to see you again next year here in Bonn.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speich, for your comments and your questions. Henrik Schmidt from DWS Investment is next. So Mr. Speich, I forgot to mention that we've known each other for a long time. And so Mr. Schmidt from DWS.

Dr. Appel, you just introduced me. Mr. Hottges, other members of the Board, dear shareholders. In your comments, you made clear that we had another record year or you had another record year organic growth. You continued that. And also for 2026, the company expects further growth.

Now here, Deutsche Telekom from the perspective of portfolio management is a cash flow compounder, a company that boosts its earnings by reinvesting these earnings into its own business. And this is exactly what you have visualized through this beer mat and the flywheel. So I submitted my questions beforehand, but I'd like to read them out anyway. I hope I can stay within my time allotment.

Brand value is remarkable. For the fourth time, Deutsche Telekom is the most valuable German brand, has defended this position. So congratulations on this. But of course, you've laid the bar very high. So the dividend of EUR 1 per share is another record along with the share buyback program. This is a clear message really for the long-term profitability of the company. All of this is only possible due to your commitment in the Supervisory Board and the Management Board, but also, of course, to the commitment of the 200,000 employees. Many of you have thanked your employees already, but let me repeat this again. And let me emphasize this and please pass on this to the employees.

Now in terms of strategy, I think you should keep pursuing cybersecurity and governance, but also cash flow generation and capital allocation and also the monetization of your fiber build-out in Germany, including your price setting power. And my first questions are related to this.

How are you planning to use the surplus cash flow? And what are your priorities here like compared to competitors in the industry, your capital spend is relatively high. There's high investment requirement. So what are your priorities for your investment plans? And do you think that the ratio that you have right now will be continued? Monetization of the fiber build-out. We're interested in the drivers of service growth. What parameters determine your strategy for 2026? How do you evaluate price elasticity of consumers? And how can you accelerate the MDU access and also improve services for users? You showed us the adhesive fiber or adhesive cables. What other ideas do you have? What are the 3 biggest bottlenecks in terms of MDU penetration?

Cybersecurity governance, hacker attacks have been the issue at several other AGMs. The EU has imposed strict regulations on companies in terms of cybersecurity and is now really committed to this security. Now in the case of Deutsche Telekom, who bears overall responsibility for cybersecurity? How do you measure this performance? And how do you escalate this to the Supervisory Board? How do you prepare for the NES to update of this regulation in terms of your internal processes?

And my second question is the Digital Network Act that you already mentioned and its impact on your scaling strategy, which elements are most relevant for Deutsche Telekom single passport authorization or the reduced administrative effort. What time horizon are you planning with? And will DNR extend or have an impact on your consolidation in Europe? And the Gigabit Infrastructure Act third, which has been in force since October last year, simplified -- enabled simplified procedures. What measurable effects do you expect for the fiber build-out in Germany? What are your targets? And where do you see despite immediate practicability, where do you see friction? Mr. Hottges, you spent some time on this in your talk. Now there are some antitrust proceedings that are going on, a total of 7, which I mentioned in the management report, 6 of these proceedings you already reported on.

And the cable channel facilities. I would like to get an update from you on that. What is new, is an action -- a class action suit against German Telecom in the U.S. and T-Mobile U.S. and member of the Supervisory Board of T-Mobile in the U.S. and which is linked to the share buyback program and the remuneration program of the company of T-Mobile. Can you give us an update on the current proceedings and the dispute in value and how you're going to share the cost between Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile and the Board of Directors of T-Mobile in the U.S.? And how long do you think these proceedings will take place?

Let's talk about corporate governance and Dr. Appel, you've established a dialogue for that. One thing was already mentioned and you addressed it yourself. As per yesterday, a gap emerged on the Board of Management because Dr. Mudesir left the Board, who had only taken on responsibility for products and technology in October. So from our point of view, this is one of the central posts on the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom.

Dr. Illek, thank you very much for taking over responsibility for this important field on an interim basis. But this is of central importance and certainly, therefore, not a long-term solution.

So my question to the Board is, the General Committee that is responsible for appointing the members to the Board, wouldn't that have been possible for the General Committee to foresee what would happen? Did the General Committee fail to assess Dr. Mudesir's commitment to the company in the right way? And I mean, what is the company that Dr. Mudesir is working for now? Is it possibly a competitor of Deutsche Telekom? So has the Supervisory Board, has the General Committee looked into that? And -- why is it that the CFO is now responsible for Dr. Mudesir's previous field of responsibility on an interim basis?

I'm going to skip a couple of things for reasons of time. I would just like to reiterate what Mr. Speich said with regards to the independence of the Audit Committee. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Mrs. Kollmann and Mr. Streibich for the multiyears of work for the Audit Committee, even though we sometimes disagreed on things. But we would like to know who will be the new members of the Audit Committee from now on?

And yes, Mr. Wintels, we voted for you in 2020, but will no longer be able to do it because of the current setup of mandates. Mr. Dohmke's reelection is something we approve. Thank you for the personal introduction. It would be nice if Mr. Herzig had done the same. Now that we gather here, that would have been a good opportunity. And Dr. Appel, we will also vote for your reelection.

I would like to state though that the Supervisory Board is losing a female member, and it doesn't look as if that post will be refilled with another woman. I would also like to know more about the absence of some of the members, Mr. Empey, Mr. Ploss, Mr. Wintels, Mr. Schottke, Mrs. [indiscernible] and Mrs. Marx. They weren't able to attend some of the meetings that would be -- we would like to know what meetings did they not attend, what were the resolutions taken there and what were the reasons these gentlemen weren't able to attend?

And what we need is a varied reporting, and we -- I have 3 final questions. First of all, on the subject of capital increase. Are there any specific plans regarding the appropriation of this capital? What are the plans of the Management Board? Is Deutsche Telekom planning to acquire a company or a stake in a company or various companies that would justify this capital increase? That doesn't seem to be the case from our point of view, but we will abstain this vote as we did previously.

Then on the remuneration of the Board of Management. You explained how the benchmarking works. And in terms of the amounts involved, it is more or less acceptable, but we believe that maybe it would have been good to introduce a rule that would have more or less forced shareholder representatives to acquire shares. Has this been discussed? If so, what is the result?

That brings me to the end of my talk. We are going to approve all items on the agenda with the exception of the election of Mr. Wintels and the granting discharge to the Supervisory Board. I would like to thank you for listening, ladies and gentlemen, and I would like to wish the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board every success for their future work. Thank you.

Thank you very much. That brings us to Henrik Pontzen from Union Invest, after which time, we will answer the first questions. Then followed by Frederik Beckendorff.

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Henrik Pontzen. And in Union Investment Portfolio Management, I'm responsible for sustainability and active shareholders. We represent Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken, one of the big telecom shareholders, and we represent the interest of our 6 million investors.

First of all, let me say that it feels good to be on bond here today. This -- the face-to-face AGMs of Deutsche Telekom are a very positive signal for the shareholder democracy in Germany. In fact, this is an anniversary, because it is the 30th year of the T-Share. And Telecom has come a long way from a previous state enterprise to a global champion. Last year, we already celebrated a sensational outperformance. The telecom was developing much better than the DAX and the stock market overall. But over the past 12 months, we have gone through a rough patch as telecom shareholders. And I must say that we are kind of spoiled.

While the telecoms sector grew by 20%, the T-share came out at a negative return. The reasons for this trend are quite clear from our point of view. First of all, a massive insecurity in the U.S. because of a new competitive dynamics in the context of Verizon. Secondly, a major price battle, which goes at the expense of margins, not just in the U.S. but also in the German mobile communications business. And thirdly, not enough new customers in the broadband business. Mr. Hottges, you are the conductor based in Bonn, but most of the music is actually played in the U.S.

T-Mobile U.S. accounts for more than 50% of Deutsche Telekom's earnings, which makes it the central growth engine. But you kept your call in a tough market environment. So you're under pressure. And if that -- even though this pressure might have been the reason for the negative impact on our share price, I still appreciate how you handle this pressure. Thank you.

Long-term success, however, requires not just to keep your cool, but also to be longsighted. Competitors in the U.S. bank on convergence of fixed and mobile networks. So the question is, what is the reach of your optical fiber footprint in the U.S.? Is it enough to keep up with AT&T and Verizon in the long run? Don't you think you have to be much bolder in order to safeguard your position as a quality leader. In this context, we can see that there is a new dynamic. Broadband access through satellites. And that's why we would like to ask what growth are you hoping to achieve as a result of your cooperation with Starlink T-satellite in the U.S.? And what are the possibilities you see to expand this cooperation beyond filling white spots?

Now the fiber rollout is supposed to be completed by 2030 in Germany, by which time copper lines become history, which means that processes become more efficient and waiting times are cut short. Our question is, if you want to achieve this network rollout goal, what will this mean operationally speaking? Is this going to be a highly efficient new cash flow machine? If you want to retain your customers, you need to remain quality leader. And we share your pain, Mr. Hottges, about every -- and any customer you're losing. That's why it's important to focus on that.

Now as we are competing for customers, reliability plays a major role. Do you think that the current media content strategy will suffice to reduce customer churn even further? Or do you think that you need -- that you should maybe invest more in content? We generally support companies that are reliable in how they are pursuing goals and how -- and know how to handle transformation. Deutsche Telekom can do that.

And Deutsche Telekom plays a key role for the digital sovereignty of Europe. In this context, we are interested in 3 things. First of all, the protection of critical infrastructure. By setting up European data centers, Deutsche Telekom pursues the important goal of achieving digital sovereignty in Europe. But this makes the company also more vulnerable to cyber attacks.

So Mr. Hottges, how are you further developing your cybersecurity strategy? How are you using AI to meet the increasing threats in the cyber space? What specific measures are you taking to protect your infrastructure against any such attacks? Now I heard that customers affected by such attacks were given unlimited data immediately. I have a lot of respect for that. I really liked it. But the question is, how can we prevent that sort of thing from happening in the first place?

Secondly, as for your data centers and the carbon footprint, now you said that compared to 2017, you've improved your carbon footprint by 94% and 97%, respectively. That wasn't easy, but you achieved it anyway. Congratulations.

Number 2 in our DAX climate study. That's where you came in, and that's a great result, but AI eats up a lot of resources. So how do you make sure that all the energy needed by your data centers can actually be found? And how can this be brought in line with your climate goals?

And getting back to the Eisbach in Munich, are you making any investments in water management? Because it's not just electricity, cooling also represents a challenge here.

Thirdly, social matters. In the U.S., we see that diversity goals are becoming less important, which is extremely worrying. And at the same time, you have a limited number of women managers. We've talked about this before, and you once said that us, men need to change things, in particular, to change the situation overall also for women. So my question to you is, what have you changed? We accept and we understand that you had to take measures to minimize legal risks. But we don't really understand the background to your decision. Did the U.S. administration put you under pressure to reduce your environmental goals in order to -- for other concessions? If so, how did you handle it? Did you even go beyond it? And how do you look at initiatives to attract new staff in the face of demographic change?

We believe it's good to risk -- to manage risks with a view to the future, but at the same time, we should not exert too much pressure. And you should not let up when you're facing headwind for the first time. We need to stick to our guns, so to speak, show the right attitude even when under pressure.

Now let's return to the agenda. We grant this charge to the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board. And with 2 exceptions, we will approve all items. As proposed by the management, 7B and 8 are the items that we do not support. That is the election of Mr. Wintels, because he holds too many mandates, and we will vote against the creation of the approved capital in the proposed amount, because we believe that this amount is too high.

Mr. Hottges, you have paved the way for the company in a good way in a difficult environment. Now it was a difficult year, but you did a good job, and that's why I'm not being too critical in my speech here today.

Now we need to harvest. We believe that the best times are still ahead for Deutsche Telekom if the fiber rollout in Germany becomes a success and T-Mobile U.S. remains the growth engine it currently is, make sure that you make the most of it.

Finally, we would like to thank all staff for their commitment, and we wish you the best of luck. Now IMT count on me. This is something that we really need to put into practice, and it actually already feels as if this is the case. I would like to thank you all for listening, and I wish us all an interesting and insightful AGM. Thank you.

Now that brings us to the first round of answers. We used to have 5 speakers in a row, but this time, we're going to do it differently, which is why Mr. Hottges, Mr. Illek and myself will now answer a couple of questions directly rather than wait for the back office to answer all the questions.

Frederik Beckendorff will be the speaker afterwards. And then there will be 2 more speakers, after this round of answers. [ Alexander Mu and Mr. Bakovic. ]

So I need to take a look at my notes here. Let me start with a question raised by Mr. Speich. You asked me the following question. Dr. Appel, our question to the Supervisory Board is, what does your specific succession planning look like for the Board of Management? How do you make sure that Deutsche Telekom's specific culture will be maintained for the next management generation?

Well, first of all, the Supervisory Board's most important task is to select the right staff and members. And that holds true for my role, in particular, which is why we are investing a lot of time on that. We define the relevant criteria that describe the skills that the relevant members need to bring. Then we discuss things with Mr. Hottges, and we draw up a short list of names. Then I hold talks with some of these people myself. I regularly arrange meetings with the managers from the second management level, even if there are not candidates. And this is the basis for our decision.

And number four, we regularly examine the external market to see if there are any possible candidates for vacant positions. So in our succession planning, we look at in-house candidates and possible external candidates that we would only address, of course, if it becomes more tangible. That's the process.

And Mr. [indiscernible], Mr. Diehl and Mr. Mudesir are 3 examples of in-house candidates. All 3 candidates have also held talks with me before. That's what the process looks like, and we'll continue along these lines.

The -- of course, Mr. Hottges is facing a particular challenge here. But you might want to trust that the Supervisory Board has enough experience to handle this. I'm very confident. And I think that's all we can say about any such staff matters in public. So that was Mr. Speich's question to me.

Can I ask Mr. Hottges to answer another question from Mr. Speich. And I am also slightly digital, so I can maybe assist a little bit here.

Yes. Everything is new and digital here and really going on AI. You asked about future growth. And first of all, the core business of telecom in the future will remain fiber optic and mobile. In Germany, we're expecting growing revenue, both in mobile and fixed network, and we're continuing to build out the fixed network to cover 99% of the population, and we're building 5 million connections a year in fiber. So of course, that's a growth engine for the company as well.

And also, it provides long-term revenue. And we're talking about a cycle of 20 years plus, which this infrastructure will be used. And organic growth of the group, we want on the basis of our infrastructure to generate 4% growth globally with adjusted EBIT 4% growth. And we -- the target for free cash flow up to 2027 is EUR 21 billion. We want to expand it to that level. So the core business is clear.

But above and beyond this, we noted that we see additional growth opportunities through investment in technology. Then we have cloud and of course, the digital business, especially B2B, where we see certain value growth possibilities.

Let's take the cloud and digital solutions, first of all. There, we're developing in the company, but for other companies and also in T-Systems for our B2B customers, the public cloud solutions and digital solutions for so-called classifieds. These are companies that want -- need very high -- very highly secure data protection, but also the public health insurance schemes and the public and the government authorities. Also, we're offering data centers and see a lot of additional growth potential there. In the U.S., we have a takeover strategy where we're looking for fiber optic companies. We've already taken over a couple of them, Metronet and Lumos, and we will -- Lumos, and we'll continue to take over others if we see an opportunity not only to grow or -- so we won't only grow organically in the U.S., we'll also grow through takeovers. We bought U.S. Cellular and have integrated it. That offers new growth potential in that segment as well in a market segment, where we weren't before.

And then other companies are Bliss and Vistra, they do digital media business there. And the advertising market is digitizing in the U.S. as well. And the networking of these digital -- of these assets in America will be supported by us as well. So in America, a very clear goal is to build out the fiber optic joint venture to provide substitute products in 5G network. And we're going to see conversion there.

Also another takeover for 2 million, DT Capital Partners provide capital technology, and we want to invest in that. This helps us to expand capacities and acquire the know-how that's lacking in the company by buying external partners or cooperating with them. This helps us become more productive, but also to offer customers new business like cybersecurity products or network devices, IoT devices, including drones.

Well, drones is another topic that's interesting for us. So we want to increasingly become a digital enabler, a digital partner in the B2B sector and especially in the B2B sector of T-Systems, but also for Germany and Europe. We see growth potential there as well. And that accounts for the 4% figure, I've mentioned it.

You asked about the spectrum strategy in the U.S. And the question was how can we grow profitably in the U.S. and really secure this. We have a 600 megahertz spectrum in the U.S. That's quite a bit. We have additional spectrum in the middle frequencies, including 2, the frequencies awarded in 2024. There, we're building out the network in a targeted way for the non-experts there, the communication spectrum is what we base our mobile architecture on, and you need properties to do that. The more properties you have, the more you can build. So we're building a lot of spectrum there where we want to offer mobile communications so that we can offer this to customers there.

On top of this, in the U.S. We have additional spectrum in so-called -- in the so-called low-band area in the U.S., which we've acquired. The future investment and expansion of spectrum depends, of course, on what spectrum will be up for sale. And in 2027, there will be a major acquisition coming up, C-band, it's called. And we're working on the 2.7 gigahertz band when it's offered in the U.S., we'll take part in both of the auctions in 2027 and 2028 to expand our market position there. For us, the leading spectrum position is one of the strategic features that differentiate us from the competition, especially in the U.S.

Also a question about the satellite competition, how we're dealing with that and tech competition. Satellite solutions are in addition to our mobile and fixed network offering. In the U.S., we've already -- in 2024, we entered into a partnership with Starlink. And given this -- on this basis in the U.S., we have a certain service. 30% of the territory in the U.S. doesn't have -- isn't covered at all by mobile communications. So these devices, mobile devices have a direct-to-sell integration feature with the aid of satellites. So we entered into this partnership, and we expanded it this year to Europe.

So Starlink will also be -- we will be offering it in Europe as well. And in the next generation, it will probably be 2028, satellite integration will be -- satellite features will be integrated in mobile devices. And our strategy for the satellite operators is to send a signal from the S-band and Q-band of satellites. And if somebody doesn't have any spectrum, we can think about either leasing them spectrum, because we'll -- then they'll be able to have spectrum that they can use with Starlink. We did that in the U.S., the first generation, but now Starlink has its own spectrum. So that probably won't be necessary in the U.S. going forward.

So I would end my answer to that question here, and Christian can take over.

Yes, Mr. Speich asked about the capital allocation for stock buybacks and continuity and what's happening in the interest environment. Let me start with the capital allocation and talk about the structure we used in the capital market.

In the medium-term planning, we've gone -- we've assumed a growth of 4% to 6% and the forecast for this year is at the upper end for this year, 6%. And we have a very clearly communicated shareholders' remuneration of [ 2.5 ] and net debt of 2.5. And at the end of the year, we are at 2.62.

In the hierarchy, we said the most important thing is to keep -- maintain the competitiveness of the situation of the company. That's why we said 21% of service revenue will be reinvested in the business to acquire spectrum, for example. Then our dividend policy is 40% to 60% of adjusted EBIT per share.

Last year, it was 50%. So we've always been kind of in the middle over the last few years, hovering around 50%. Then there's the topic of, do we do stock buybacks on the [ DT ] side or do we do it on the T-Mobile U.S. side. We have never set long-term priorities, because it depends on a lot of factors.

First of all, the share price in the U.S. and how it develops when it's really attractive, then we want to do some buybacks in the U.S. And then also in terms of the hierarchy, investment in our own business, then dividends and then share buybacks in the U.S. And we're somewhat exposed to interest hikes. I don't know if you have been following developments in America, they have about -- we have about EUR 10 billion buffer in our planning for that in the U.S., even though -- and we haven't spent this money yet. So I would say our interest planning contingencies are conservative. And I don't see any major risks right now. And we can always then adjust other things like share buybacks, buybacks and dividends.

And then a question was from Mr. Schmidt going in the same direction, focuses focal points of investment and 21% was CapEx to service revenue ratio. That's EUR 17 billion investment, EUR 5.9 billion alone in Germany. So you see the magnitude of our activities and investments in the German market.

Mr. Schmidt asked what we would do with surplus cash on hand. We have an ongoing dividend policy of 40% to 60% of adjusted EBIT per share, and we'll use surplus for share buybacks on the U.S. side or on the DT side. And of course, if -- we'll discuss this when it becomes relevant. But when you have an attractive target for an acquisition, well, then we'll make a move. And at the heart of it all is a focus on increasing value for our shareholders. We talked about fiber being a long-term investment, but we want to produce a ROCE that's above the capital cost every year.

And the next question regarded, what are we planning with regard to capital measures? And if we have any M&As? No. We have just an omnibus resolution on the agenda. And our policy is that we don't talk about M&A too early. Only when we've signed a deal, and we don't announce it either. So -- but you don't need to expect any major acquisitions right now.

You asked about the Net Promoter Score and price hikes. First of all, the development with Promoter Scores, this is a metric which measures customer satisfaction for all products, for all situations at the company. So there's not just one Net Promoter Score. There's a whole bunch of metrics that are part of this.

Net Promoter Score is -- we've been measuring that throughout the group since 2021. And we know that -- and you know that customer satisfaction is a main target for us and the management is paid according to this metric. So it's important to the company. It's a central steering instrument. And there, we measure loyalty of customers as well and willingness to invest in our products or services. And this is -- these are derived from this metric.

So -- and to just mention a few of these metrics, we don't look at the competition. We're better than the competition in every category. We're oriented towards the Internet companies like Apple, because they have very high customer satisfaction rates. We're talking about 50. That's the goal we have.

The Net Promoter Score. I don't want to go into detail here. Of course, we could do a deep dive on that, but we are -- we look at quality aspects like how customers -- how satisfied they are with customer-friendly digital services. And that's the standard for our internal metric, and it's been rising continuously over the last few years, including in target systems. There, we have very high standards, very high targets for the coming years.

And in addition, we analyze the prices of the competition and their promotional offers and how customers react to these. Of course, this depends heavily on the features in the market and the competition as well as the communication of their price change that they carry out. So there's a certain mix there, but our claim is to be #1 and also to be better than the telcos, the other telcos, but also be at the level of the Internet groups.

The next question you asked was about a road map for the switching off of copper in Germany and CO2 cost effects that we expect from that through the migration to purely fiber optic networks. At present, there's not any regional or national switch-off date for the copper network.

Section 34 of the Telecommunications Act stipulates that there is to be a smooth transition from copper to fiber optic. And we are opposed to a mandatory shutdown of the copper network for various reasons. We can only do that, of course, after we have a fiber optic infrastructure. There are customers that like the old infrastructure and prefer it, and that's why mandatory switch -- off switching, we think that, that would create unnecessary bureaucracy in red tape.

No, switching -- and I'm talking about these gray cabinets you have in a district. You have to switch all these over to fiber optic everywhere before we can switch off the copper network. And because of the high amount of usage we have of our copper network right now, we haven't completely switched over these switching stations yet. So we, of course, want to migrate in many areas to fiber optics by 2030, and we will be switching off several of these switching stations, but I can't give you an exact date for that. It's important that all our customers in Germany are supplied with our network, the entire time.

We expect over the long term for this migration to take place. And we're also expecting savings in maintenance and energy consumption over the long term because we'll be able to switch off some of these networks, which will allow us to reduce costs significantly. And this will also lead to a decline in CO2 emissions. That will help us achieve our goal of net zero emissions from Scope 2 to -- Scope 1 to Scope 3 by 2030. Right now, we're working on setting up the fiber optic infrastructure and making sure that parallel to this, we still have the copper infrastructure. And before it switched off, we don't have any reductions on -- and we haven't taken into account any cost reductions.

And another question was the contribution we expect from digitization and AI to productivity and reduction in cost and service quality in the next 3 to 5 years and how we measure these contributions. That's, of course, one of the most important questions we're facing in the company right now. And I'd like to really stress AI is not there only to reduce costs and boost productivity. With AI, we can serve our customers better more effectively and our services can be improved. We can be -- we're able to put our products faster on the market, and we can enhance productivity in our markets. So productivity and costs are only one side of AI. By 2027, we expect EUR 800 million in cost effects in Germany and Europe by 2028 through fewer calls, telephone calls, fewer processing times in call centers.

Automation will lead to productivity gains and network planning in field service -- in the field service and IT and the production of software will realize savings as well. Also concrete efficiency gains in day-to-day business that can already be measured today.

I can give you an example of this. In the tech process, there's the so-called line technology. And there, we've been able to reduce processing time by the use of agents from 225 seconds per connection to 9 seconds. Just to give you a feeling for this.

And another example is customer questions and service. 480 was the average with the support of AI has been reduced to 300. And through the use of our internal AI assistant, AskT, the assistants or call center agents, the time they need to make an offer to customers has been reduced from 2 minutes, 21 seconds to 18 seconds. So this means a huge improvement for us in the customer service area, and we're expecting similar gains and impact in other areas.

In the U.S., T-Mobile expects AI through the digitization initiative up through 2027 to save EUR 2.7 billion or rather contribute EUR 2.7 billion to adjusted EBIT, and that should reduce the churn rate and allow predictive analysis of networks as well. And they're expecting through digitalization also an effect of 3 to 5 percentage points in the ratio between service and costs. So an increase in productivity of 3% to 5%. So I could talk about all these areas and keep going about -- but the effect will be significant for Deutsche Telekom in all of its business fields.

Okay. This leads me to Mr. Schmidt's questions, and I would like to start with a question regarding Mr. Mudesir. Could the Executive Committee have recognized earlier on what the situation of Mr. Mudesir was? Didn't you question his commitment to the Management Board, and you asked about the time lines and you also asked about the competitive situation.

In February, I had a feedback discussion with Mr. Mudesir. This is what I usually do, and he didn't say anything on this topic. Quite on the concurrent, then he went to the World Mobile Congress, and he was enthusiastic about all the new products. So for us, as the committee, it was not visible. In the first half of the year, then he addressed us and then the process was very quick, and you can see that he is no longer here today. We regret this very much. We don't really know who could be a successor. We've got -- we don't know whom he wants to go to because there is a competition done. I think he really surprised everybody.

I'm also disappointed by this, but we have to handle this. And you also -- well, perhaps you asked why we took Mr. Illek. Yes, we could also have chosen anybody else on the Board of Management. We've got strong competencies. It's always a question of competence and motivation and time. Mr. Illek has worked for the company for a very long time. He's a natural scientist by profession. He has good management skills. So I don't have any doubts that he's perfect for this task. Availability, if you get another task, it's always difficult. I know that the finance level is extremely well positioned with good managers so that if Mr. Illek doesn't have too much time for his managers, there will not be a major problem. So we are well geared for that. And motivation, well, when I informed Mr. Illek about it, he just smiled in his typical way, and he said, well, this is an interesting idea.

And I think with Mr. Illek, we've got a good person to fill this position, and we now have time for succession planning. We already started to long list and shortlist external and internal candidates, and we want to find the right candidate and not just fill the position very quickly. Our management team is very good. We've got excellent people in the technological area. So I think we've got enough possibilities to respond. And this also shows that we've got a good management Board. Of course, we were not happy about it because we were disappointed, but we just have to accept it. So much on Mr. Mudesir. I think this covers this topic.

Well, you asked about the motivation, succession planning. I already mentioned this. And this leads me to the question of the Audit Committee. Yes, the Audit Committee will have 2 new members. This hasn't happened yet. The constituent meeting will happen after the AGM, and I can only tell you what is intended and the Supervisory Board has to agree to this. Mrs. Knight and Mr. Kruger are planned for the Audit Committee and Mrs. Empey, who has been there for a year, should be the Chairperson. And with Mrs. Empey, I think we'll have an excellent successor in the Chairmanship of this committee should the Supervisory Board adopt this resolution.

Then we've got one question concerning the self-commitment. Mr. Schmidt, we didn't discuss it, but it's a good point. And yes, we should think about it. It's a good idea. Had you come to me early on, we might have implemented this already. We didn't discuss it. We didn't deny this. So we will actively take up this topic. And when we come you with further changes, we will take this into account. We'll then also make -- include this. So thank you very much for your hint. Now concerning the absences from the Supervisory Board meetings. You asked what was decided in the individual meetings. Mrs. Empey missed one meeting, an Audit Committee meeting, I assume at least -- assume that this was a collision of dates. If you are new in a body, then it's always difficult.

And then I think it was in parallel with another AGM, and we decided about the new auditor. Mr. [ Kreusel ] missed one meeting. We didn't take any resolutions. Mr. Wintels missed the meeting in the plenary session of the Supervisory Board, and it's not said here what resolutions were taken. Mr. Schottke missed several meetings. One, we didn't have any resolution, another meeting where we had a meeting on the budget. Mrs. Seelemann-Wandtke missed one and Mrs. Marx as well, and there were no decisions taken during these meetings. Should there be any resolutions planned, we talk to the missing people beforehand and ask for their written votes. I think this answers this question.

And I think these were your -- all your questions. Mr. Schmidt, I think I fully answered your set of questions on Mr. Mudesir. Okay. Then over to Mr. Hottges.

Yes, I come back to Mr. Schmidt's questions regarding value over volume strategy for 2026. If we talk about value over volume, we are focusing on the value per customer in order to increase service revenues instead of just focusing on small volumes, and this is done by price increases and optimization of the rate mix. The rate increase of the mix cards, and we've got an increase of prices by EUR 5 starting with the second mix card. And for broadband, we increased our prices by EUR 1 for new customers in October and EUR 2 for old contracts starting in 2026. You should not forget the only industry which did not succeed in passing on increased costs to the customers is the telecommunications industry in Germany, which is a huge problem, also increased the pressure on our margins in Germany.

And this is why these price increases were now necessary, and I think they are tolerable in my view. We do not see any major influence on our customer satisfaction or churn rate or a loss of customers. The goal is that we improve the rate mix and the quality of our revenue so that we have more service revenue that we can use in order to invest into the future value generation of our company and into further expansion of our mobile communications. Then you asked about cybersecurity and you asked who is responsible to steer this to escalate the cyber risks at group level. First of all, the operational responsibility for this topic Cybersecurity is in the security department, and this is under the responsibility of the Board segment, product and technology.

We've got a huge security organization there that is also developing the risk situation. And the measurement of cyber risks, our performance in this area is happening across the entire company. We've got a report about the risks. The risk situation is then also feeding into the results, the free cash flow and investments should they be necessary. Third level is the escalation to the Supervisory Board, especially the Audit and Finance Committee, which is informed about the internal control system and the risk and opportunity system in all the meetings. And the Supervisory Board is convinced of the efficiency and effectiveness. Cyber risks are always part of our reporting. Should anything major happen, then we would also go to the Supervisory Board and inform it orally or in writing if there are major incidents.

Then you asked about which elements of the Digital Networks Act has the highest influence and what time line we are expecting, the European Commission with the DNA suggested to have only one regulation on all the telecommunications access for all the 27 countries, Networks Act. And we think that this is very bureaucratic, less -- not ambitious enough. It is not reaching the suggestions made by Letta and Draghi, who used to be the Prime Minister of Italy, and it also misses the overall objectives to get more investments into the telecommunications sector in Europe. So these ambitions will not be implemented by this draft bill. And what was meant to simplify the work did not reach the goals. And for us, the reform and harmonization of frequency locations is the best element in this Digital Networks Act.

Here, it's about no longer having an auction on spectrums, but giving this spectrum to the telecommunications companies for a longer period of time, I think this is a good idea, then we would receive spectrum, let's say, for 40 years, and we would know that we would not have to spend billions on this, and we could spend these billions for the expansion of the network. So to the benefit of the customer, this is much better. But unfortunately, I don't believe that the member states of the European Union will do without the additional income from their budgets. So we will have to wait and see what will happen and what will be covered by the DNA. We expect that at least 1.5 years will still be needed in order to discuss this. The entry into force is to be expected for the year 2027 at the earliest. But I really have to say that I do not think that the Digital Networks Act will have very positive effects for our business.

Then the Digital Networks effect again -- Act again, you asked about the national and cross-border consolidation and what partnerships and other models can enjoy. First of all, the Digital Networks Act does not change anything about consolidation. This is antitrust issues that we have to take into account here. And irrespective of the DNA, we see larger scaling effects as necessary. China has 3 large telecommunications companies for a market of EUR 1.5 billion. America has Verizon, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom for a market of EUR 330 million and Europe with 450 million inhabitants has 3 to 4 competitors in each country multiplied by 27.

This means that we've got more than 100 vendors, suppliers in the European telecommunications market, and I don't have to talk about the consequences. The revenues are half of what you have in other markets and half of the suppliers cannot earn their capital costs. You've got an enormous price competition because everybody is just trying to get some money for investments. So what we really need is European consolidation. We urgently need a big European player that is on par with the U.S. and Chinese telecommunication companies. We need economies of scale. Otherwise, we would have a fragmented market, which will make us a victim of large global companies.

Fiber in multifamily homes and how can we improve this? The legal framework conditions to improve the access to multifamily buildings is necessary, which is also driven by Mr. Wildberger, and we are asking for better access to multi-dwelling units because otherwise, FTTH cannot be successful. If you go to a house and the landlord doesn't give us access to the staircase, we cannot connect the individual apartments. And if you connect one apartment, we have to be allowed to also connect the other apartments even if they have not booked this yet. This is free of charge to the customers, but we do not have to do the building several times. And this is why we ask for clear legal regulation for multi-dwelling units to make sure that we can do the rollout effectively.

Then the access to buildings and floods, I already mentioned this. We need practical and legal certainty here. And at present, there is an initiative and paper, which is discussed in the parliament in Germany, and we clearly support this initiative. This leads me to the question of cable systems and the legal situation. What is the current situation here, it's about the fees to be paid for using our cable systems. Vodafone Deutschland GmbH and Vodafone West GmbH have suit Telekom Deutschland. And basically, the question is whether Telekom Deutschland will stick to what was decided in 2003 in the connection of the sale of the cable subsidiaries and whether this is now become obsolete because we bought these companies and this was connected to long-term obligations at which conditions the cable ducts of Deutsche Telekom could be used, and this is now controversial.

In the most recent decisions, the Federal Court of Justice in December 2021 said that the decisions of the higher regional courts were to be repelled and a new lawsuit was necessary. Nothing has been decided yet. The lease was paid, and we still think that it is appropriate. The financial impact of these lawsuits cannot be estimated at the current point in time. So please bear with me if I am unable to give you concrete figures here.

Mr. Schmidt, you also asked about the shareholders' action of the Delaware Court of Chancery. And at present, 2 shareholders' actions are against us, one of June 2021 regarding the Sprint joint venture and one dating back to February 2025 regarding the share buyback program for T-Mobile U.S. and there are no clear indications how much money is asked for, and we cannot give you any information right now what the burdens will be. And in the lawsuit of June 2021, a lot of documents were submitted and a lot of people were interviewed and various experts' opinions were submitted, but a date for an oral hearing has not been defined yet for the lawsuit dating back to February 2025, Deutsche Telekom has asked to dismiss the lawsuit because it's not logical. No decision has been taken yet, and there is -- it is not possible to make a forecast now how long these lawsuits will take.

Then Mr. Schmidt, you also asked about the effect of the Gigabit Infrastructure Act on our fiber rollout in Germany, and you asked about the internal target values. We expect standardized approval procedures and the use of alternative technological processes in order to support our fiber rollout. Regarding the access to buildings, we think it's necessary to have a clear legal regulation for good fiber rollout. It's no use if we are allowed to build in the streets, but if you can't get access to the buildings. And we have clear targets, for example, regarding the coverage of households and also 2.5 new homes passed lines, but we do not have any specific -- geo-specific KPIs.

You also want to know whether we still see problems in implementation on site for legal and regional decisions. The -- yes, all these decisions can have an impact on investments, but it still depends on the implementation in Germany. And in Germany, the public interest in the network expansion at state and regional level are now implemented. We do have the legal framework conditions, but now they also need to be implemented by the municipalities in order to be fully effective. And as a background information, why do we still have these problems in Germany because we have to build underground. We are only -- we have only very few masts and towers. In other countries, it's different. And therefore, it's much more difficult for us to connect rural areas in Germany, and this is why we have to use civil engineering.

You asked about satellite cooperation, Mr. Schmidt. And the question was whether through T-satellite, we see options to achieve better coverage, mobile coverage. Mr. [ Ponson ], I think that was your question.

Let me just remind you that Mr. Beckendorff will be the next speaker on the list. Then [ Alexandra Mu ], Ms. Mu from SDK and then [ Jacques Abramovich ] from the [indiscernible] Foundation. Thank you very much. [ Mr. Ponson ] asked a question about T-satellite and Starlink. I talked about this before, where we don't have coverage yet. Of course, we want to offer satellite as an additional option. We promise to always make sure that our customers have the best network. And so satellite is a good option. It has to be integrated into the mobile network, of course. And it will be integrated, and we are also boosting resilience if something should go wrong, then, of course, the satellite link will work. Of course, we will not only be able to transmit voice, but also messaging services, for example, through the Starlink connection.

I think that for business customers as well as retail customers, this is an interesting use case. We can already see today that there are maritime use cases and also government use cases, satellites are getting more and more important. We call this the network of networks. And of course, we will always do everything in order to be able to offer the latest technology to our customers. It doesn't always have to be terrestrial technology. [ Mr. Ponson ] also asked about the range of our fiber network in the U.S., our position towards AT&T and Horizon. T-Mobile U.S. has a clear advantage over the others. We are #1 in terms of 5G in the U.S. It has a lot to do with the spectrum position that we acquired when we joined together with Sprint.

And today, there is no relevant fixed network that we have in the U.S. That's why when it comes to the fiber race, we started from a weaker position compared to AT&T and Horizon. And so we deliberately focused on an acquisition strategy with the acquisition of some companies. And I already pointed out that we want to do more on this score. But we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater in terms of acquisitions. We want to be smart about it. That's why we believe in joint ventures. These are partnerships with private equity companies. We share the infrastructure cost with these private equity companies. And when it comes to marketing these products, we will do that ourselves. So we don't have as much capital tied down, and we share the capital cost, and they are not consolidated in our balance sheet.

At the same time, we have the biggest fixed wireless access. We offer the best fixed wireless access. Now what is this all about? We serve homes via the 5G network. We have a very strong 5G spectrum position, which gives us this capacity via the mobile service to connect homes. And this is working very well in the U.S. because especially in rural areas, fixed line service compared to Germany is very poor, compared to Germany, for example. So the mobile service is a really viable alternative. And we currently have somewhere around 8 million customers that are already using this service. Now we will keep you up to date, but we're not panicking because we don't think that convergence is a must in the U.S. market.

Do you think that the media content strategy is sufficient in order to reduce fluctuations? Now this question relates to Germany. And my answer is when it comes to MagentaTV, we are an aggregator. What is an aggregator? An aggregator joins all services -- merges all services. We have analog, we have the streaming platforms. We also have exclusive rights that we sometimes acquire like the broadcasting rights to the Football World Cup. You can see all the commercials on TV, 44 games -- for 44 games, we have exclusive rights. And of course, the matches with Germany will also be shown on Free TV due to legal reasons. Now we have functions like voice control, for example. We have metadata that can be used.

So we can offer a lot of features that other platforms don't have. And the end result is that we have very good customer retention. Also, grassroots sports is in our -- part of our offering, Basketball, Champions League. So we do have exclusive content on MagentaTV that only we can offer. And most of our customers are really happy about this aggregating function. And every now and then, we will acquire exclusive rights to pictures and to events like the Football World Cup. And you can also use Magenta TV as a streaming platform. It's much more cost efficient because you have to spend less than if you purchase an account for these individual streaming vendors.

The next question, security incidents and the security of your supply line. Now NIS-2, which you mentioned, now the tightened European requirements on the protection of European infrastructures, we welcome that. And we are implementing this right now with additional actions on the resilience of our computer centers and a certified emergency procedure. Maybe as an anecdote, yesterday, Lieutenant General Bodemann joined our management meeting and informed us about the security situation and about ways in which we can cooperate with the federal armed forces. And we also decided yesterday that the physical infrastructure of our buildings and critical network components should be additionally reinforced with camera technology and also adequate staffing.

We have an incident management and attack identification technology, so-called [ NOC ], which is a service 24/7, which sets off alerts and cyber response teams that are available around the clock can respond to any emergency. And we have regular training of all staff in order to identify incidents early on and respond to them. That's a huge topic behind the Magenta curtain. So this is going on behind the scenes all the time, and it's definitely one of our priorities because we know that we are a target for cyber attacks. And we also want to make a contribution to a safe and secure infrastructure in Germany in a crisis situation. And our program is much bigger than I could tell you right now.

In terms of the security of supply lines, we have proactive monitoring. We keep the Supervisory Board informed at all times. We have a multi-supplier strategy in the company, and we always have alternative suppliers. We constantly monitor supply lines. We have a separate unit for this, and we try to minimize risk through various actions. The GPUs that I mentioned before, that's a case in point. And the memory chips that you find everywhere are now really scarce because of the importance -- rising importance of GPUs. So we need to address this as well.

[ Mr. Ponson ], you also asked about the enhancement of our cyber strategy, critical facilities. Well, we protect them through technical physical actions, then we monitor our networks around the clock. And depending on the time of day, we have 30,000 to 50,000 attempted attacks on our networks per minute, per minute. Well, how is that possible? Well, all of these are programs, and they are constantly operating in the networks and keep trying to attack the network. And I can tell you a software is tireless. It's always on the go, and it will not disappear. And this is going to get even worse. So we need to make sure that we have firewalls and resilience actions. And we also have geo redundancies as part of our resilience approach. I don't want to go into too much detail, but we have several layers of redundancies. If certain components fail automatically, other components will step in. And we do not only have a twofold redundancy, but in certain functions, an X time redundancy. So if we are attacked, if somebody attacks our network, then other parts of the network will step in.

[ Mr. Ponson ], you also asked about the influence of government requirements on our targets and the importance of these initiatives as for the attractiveness, our attractiveness as an employer. In all markets, and I remember 12 months ago, we had the same discussion at the AGM. We always work under applicable law. And in the United States, we also respond to legal requirements when it comes to DEI questions. But I can also tell you that in all our markets, wherever we are, we stand by our principles, our values, principle of equal opportunities, diversity and we also uphold our other corporate values. And I can assure you that there is not a single market in which we operate where we have to hide our values or ignore them, but we don't moralize either. We don't engage in a moral political debate in the countries where we are. This is not our job.

So let me move on to the DEI activities. That's a really important issue in terms of employer branding and employer attractiveness. I don't need to tell you that we are the leading employer 2024, '25. We are among the top level -- the top 1% of employers. We are diversity leaders. Across the generations, we encourage equal opportunities, lifelong learning, we employ younger people, older people, men, women, no matter their background. And this is a culture that we implement, that we live, and it is also recognized by the outside world. So I think we are more than just an average company as far as this is concerned, but we are a role model, and this is also our aspiration.

How do you approach -- how do you address energy demand in your computer center? Is this a risk for climate protection targets? Of course, [ Mr. Ponson ], these computer centers require enormous amounts of energy. So no doubt about it. And now if Germany wants to be a place where you can build such computer centers and operate them, then this country has to be in a position to offer low-cost energy. And Germany is not that place yet. So we urgently need to work on that. And so that's my appeal. We definitely need subsidies in order to build future-oriented computer centers and introduce technologies for the future. We are absolutely aware of the fact that -- whenever we build computer centers, data centers and operate them, then, of course, we need more power.

And we have to see where that power comes from in line with our climate targets, where we can source green power from maybe wind farms or from other sources in Munich, for example, we've been able to conclude contracts with suppliers of renewable energies. Since 2021, we've been able to meet our energy demand wherever we are from these sources and the energy consumption by 2027, we want to keep it at least stable. So we are building data centers. We are building the network, expanding the network. All of this requires more energy. But at the same time, our ambition is to save on energy consumption and to use energy more intelligently. So we want to -- at the same time, while we expand, we still want to save energy. So actually, we are using more power, but we want to save more. And that's why we have to also convert our network or -- so for example, an antenna doesn't have to transmit at certain times.

Nowadays, antenna are always operational. But if somebody goes into a cell and then leaves the cell, of course, the cells have to be switched on and off. But if there is nobody in a certain cell, you can switch it off, but the experience for the customer is the same. But for us, this reduces energy consumption enormously. So this is a very ambitious target that despite our expansion, we want to keep our energy consumption constant. But it is one of our targets anyway. And this is what we are going to work on in the next few years. You also asked about the cooling concept, water cooling and waste heat. Of course, whenever data centers, and they all generate enormous heat, then this is recycled. And by recycling this heat, you recover energy for heating other facilities, for example. And this is done or measured through the power usage effectiveness, PUE factor.

Currently, our PUE is at 1.3. In the Munich center, it's 1.2, so you can already see how energy efficient this center is. And since these GPUs, these racks will be cooled by water, the energy efficiency of these data centers is going to go up even. So the waste that is generated can be recycled to a larger extent than today. And economically speaking, this is very important for us. We want to achieve this because we don't want to waste any energy and we don't want to waste any heat because we can use it profitably. The group-wide water consumption is going down 9.4% since last year. Our clear objective here is to keep reducing energy and water consumption, but 9.4% was the reduction last year.

Now another question about the women's quota, if you will, the women's ratio in the workforce, 24%. And you asked how we can boost that share of women in the workforce. I said before that diversity makes us stronger. It's one of my convictions, opens up new perspectives. It helps us to take better decisions, and that applies both to gender diversity, age diversity and also international diversity. But the primary interest for us should be to make the company even more successful. I mean the priority is not to ask, are you a man or a woman, are young or old? I mean, the most important question is who is the best one for the job and who can make the best contribution to the company? Now this is our point of orientation.

But of course, we need to make a bigger effort to recruit and select the right people and to put a bigger focus on the role of women in leadership positions. We're already doing a lot. And we -- this is very important for us to strike a balance here, a gender balance and an international balance. This is an important part of our recruiting and hiring policies. I mean, of course, this is a company that is in love with technology. And so our share of women is still relatively small, but it's definitely one of our priorities to boost that share.

These are my answers to the questions raised by [ Mr. Ponson ].

Yes, there have been a lot of questions. So can I ask that questions that have been raised before will not be raised again by other speakers as well because we've already provided ample information. We are now continuing with Mr. Beckendorff. And this is the representative of the DSW, and I'm very pleased about that because the DSW awarded a prize to Mr. Hottges for good corporate governance. And I'm very pleased about this. Actually, you gave the same award to me 3 years ago, and that prize to Mr. Hottges some time ago, and this prize was also awarded to my predecessor here, Mr. Lehner. Mr. Brandt was my predecessor at another company that I was working for. And Mr. [indiscernible], a previous colleague of mine from DHL, also received this prize. So yes, I can see that you're patting each other on the shoulder. That's certainly a good reason when you look at the list of the laureates, and you will find it's a long list of distinguished managers, including now Mr. Hottges. So don't worry about your 10 minutes. You still have your 10 minutes of speaking time.

Thank you. I'll need them. And I just wanted to say that it becomes increasingly hard to find adequate candidates for the DSW award. My name is Beckendorff, and I am representing the DSW and North Rhine-Westphalia, and I am representing private investors at today's AGM who have delegated their right to vote to us. First of all, I'm pleased to say that this year's AGM is a face-to-face meeting once again, a physical meeting. After all, an AGM can only be successful if there is a personal exchange between management and shareholders. The fact that we have a physical event here is a token of a good shareholder culture, and we would like to praise that. And we would like to show our respect for the excellent results achieved. 2025 was a very successful and sound year.

The forecast for adjusted EBITDA-AL and for free cash flow was raised several times throughout the year, which has become some sort of standard. Having said that, the results reported were also negatively impacted by currency effects. And at the same time, the very strong performance of T-Mobile U.S. played a major role for the success of the company overall. And the aforementioned achievements referred to the organic growth. We would like to thank management and all staff of Deutsche Telekom, and we would like to ask management to pass on our thanks to your workforce.

Ladies and gentlemen, on a less positive note, let's now take a look at ROCE, profitability. ROCE was down from 8.5% to 7.5% in the previous year. For the current year, you are expecting a further minor decline before you are then expecting another marked increase. Even though the negative trend is mostly down to negative one-offs, the question is how you intend to achieve a ROCE of 9% by 2027, which is what you announced at Capital Markets Day. So how reliable are the underlying assumptions for that?

Let's take a look at the U.S. T-Mobile U.S. continues to be the group's growth engine. Nonetheless, negative currency effects last year showed that we are very much dependent on the U.S. business, which accounts for around 2/3 of adjusted EBITDA-AL. And this means that we are facing a major risk. In addition, the competitive environment in the U.S. mobile market is becoming increasingly fierce, which is reflected in higher price sensitivity amongst customers and higher churn rates. So how can you prevent that T-Mobile U.S. is losing ground. Margins are down and prices are under pressure. But increasing pressure, increasing competitive pressure does not only affect mobile operators. Satellites also play a major role that complements the current scenario. T-Mobile U.S. cooperates with Starlink as part of satellite. You said that starting in 2028, you also want to work with Starlink and you want to use satellite for mobile services starting in 2028, even though in the past, Mr. Hottges always seem to be quite skeptical about that.

How does the Board of Management look at a possible threat through satellite operators for the mobile and broadband businesses in the U.S. and Europe? In Europe, we hold a share in the IRS 2 consortium. So in Europe, we are trying to be more sovereign. But how does that fit the cooperation with Starlink from 2028? Or is the partnership with Starlink actually a sign of the fact that you don't expect relevant European solutions to come into play in time. About the German market. The German market remained below expectations.

Despite the fiber rollout with 2.5 new lines and more than 1 million FTTH customers, you actually lost 49,000 broadband customers in the previous year. In 2026, you realigned your fiber strategy. What's new about that? And when do you expect this realigned strategy to help you achieve your goals? Right now, the German fiber industry is under -- is in the midst of a crisis. We've seen shock waves in the industry and smaller providers are only able to survive in the market to a limited extent. So what role can Deutsche Telekom play here in the fiber market? What are your strategic options?

Ladies and gentlemen, we look at the amendment of the German Telecommunications Act in a critical way. The Federal Network Agency in the future will be given the right to switch off a copper network in a region that from the point of view of the Federal Network Agency offers a relevant coverage of the fiber network. And this means that part of the infrastructure would no longer be used, and that would mark a major interference of ownership rights. It would actually mean that the state would more or less expropriate a company, and we believe this would not be acceptable. Here are a couple of questions. What are the financial and organizational consequences that the Board of Management expects from the amendment to the Telecommunications Act? And what does Deutsche Telekom intend to do to make sure that investments are secure and that ownership will continue to be protected?

In other group areas, there are also several questions regarding the strategic orientation. For instance, in the systems business. The industrial AI cloud was successfully taken into operation together with NVIDIA in Munich and positioned as an important center of innovation, as Mr. Hottges explained this morning. What has been your first experience? And what is the current level of utilization? Do you think that this will generate considerable earnings? Or do you think it is more of a symbolic project that will not have major economic significance? The EU is providing funds to expand the AI environment. And the Schwarz Group is also planning to set up an AI Gigafactory. It was estimated that EUR 8 billion to EUR 10 billion need to be invested in the setting up of such a gigafactory according to Mr. Hottges. So how -- what's the current status of your plans to set up such a gigafactory with the Schwarz Group? What are the prerequisites to be met for that?

About sustainability. In the past fiscal year, within your own company, you achieved climate neutrality. At the same time, you missed out on another target. By 2025, you said that 50% of your electricity would come from green energy. However, you only achieved 26%. So why did you fail to reach your target regarding electricity so clearly? And you said that by 2030, you want to be at a net zero emissions. In the previous year, you talked about 500 tonnes of CO2 equivalents, but now you're only talking about 959 kilotons. So how do you intend to close this gap? And how did this come about in the first place compared to the prior year?

Before I talk about today's agenda, I would like to make 2 more comments on the Board of Management. Regarding the succession planning for the CEO, we can see a new situation. We don't know where the situation is headed now that Claudia Nemat and Srini Gopalan have left. And now there is a new situation again because Abdur Mudesir, responsible for product and technology, decided to leave the company as well. This is a very central post on the Board of Management. And this Board of -- this member of the Board left the company just 6 months after he's been appointed. And we believe that this is really worth talking about. And Mr. Hottges, you also mentioned it, you also said that there is a competition ban. Was Mr. Mudesir entitled to receive any severance pay even though he voluntarily left the company?

Now let me come to the agenda. The dividend proposed EUR 1 per share marks an 11% increase year-on-year, which is yet another record dividend. Related to the unadjusted earnings per share, we have a payout ratio that is even slightly above the proposed threshold of DSW, which is 50% of the group's profit. In other words, Deutsche Telekom's shareholders still have their share of the company's success, and we welcome that. Under Item 4, this is about granting discharge to the members of the Supervisory Board. I have another question here. Mr. Lars Hinrichs left the Supervisory Board last year. In 2025, he only attended 1 of 3 meetings of the Innovation and Strategy Committee of Telekom. What are the reasons for that?

Under Item 7, we have the proposed new members of the Supervisory Board, which we support. It would have been very nice, however, if Dr. Herzig had been able to attend today's meeting here in order to introduce himself personally to the shareholders. We would like to obtain more information on the underlying nomination procedure for the members of the Supervisory Board.

How many candidates did the Supervisory Board talk to as part of this procedure? The qualification matrix, which was published showing the skills of the members is still insufficient from our point of view. In the previous years, we always criticized this procedure and the criteria. However, unfortunately, you failed to react to it and failed to revise the relevant criteria. Why is that? We would like to expressly thank Mrs. Kollmann and Mr. Streibich, the 2 departing members of the Supervisory Board. We would like to thank them very much for their many years of activity on the Supervisory Board. Back to the current year, revenue and earnings will continue to rise. Adjusted EBITDA-AL will rise by 6%, free cash flow 3% and EPS by 10% to EUR 1.20. That's the plan, and this forecast looks very promising.

Next year, we believe it would be realistic to pay out a dividend of EUR 1.10. And these continue to be good prospects for the Telekom shareholders. To wind up my talk, I would like to thank the management and all the staff of Deutsche Telekom for the work done. And for 2026, we wish you the best of success. Thank you very much for listening.

Thank you. Before we continue with Alexandra Mu, I would like to answer the 3 questions you raised. First of all, Mr. Mudesir was not paid any severance. The reason why Mr. Hinrichs only attended 1 of 3 meetings was that he was afraid that there might be a conflict of interest, which is why he then resigned from his mandate and did not attend the meetings anymore, which we welcome. And as for the nomination procedure, we talked to 3 candidates of whom 2 were proposed at today's AGM as new members.

And as for, yes, the competence, on my corporate governance roadshow, I've also had intense talks about that. Yes, we'll look into it and how we can improve it, but it will always remain a complex venture. But I've taken this on board once again. Mr. Schmidt had also pointed it out. So I think these are the questions that you asked to me. And now we are continuing with Alexandra Mu. So please be sure to stick with the 10 minutes because we still have a long list of questions and we'll have to restrict speaking time further anyway.

Members of the Supervisory Board, members of the Board of Management, dear shareholders. My name is Alexandra Mu. I am representing SDK shareholders who delegated their rights to vote to us. I would like to make 2 positive comments to start off my talk. We very much welcome the fact that this AGM has been organized yet again as a physical meeting and that the dividend payout ratio amounts to 50%. SDK believes that this is a very good thing. About the items on the agenda, unfortunately, we won't be able to approve Item 8 on the agenda because the various capital-related measures and the approved capital exceeds the 25% threshold defined by our organization. Item 10 is an item that we will abstain on because we cannot see to what extent the relevant clause on the place of jurisdiction can actually take effect and what it will mean for the company.

Then as for the election of Supervisory Board members, there's Mr. Wintels, and he holds various mandates, which we think is a critical thing, but we will approve his election anyway because of his excellent expertise, and this will certainly improve the competence of the Supervisory Board overall. And we also believe that Mr. Wintels will set aside enough time for his activities at Deutsche Telekom.

Ladies and gentlemen, the business year 2025 of Deutsche Telekom went as planned, the Management Board attained the targets set for the year. Group sales and adjusted EBIT of the company both rose as did the special effects on the adjusted EBIT. The other metrics, return on capital, financial liabilities, equity ratio and provisions have not changed significantly year-on-year. The complex international business as well as the opportunities and risks associated with it have been discussed in a very transparent way in the annual report, not only with regard to the group, but also the reporting on the different segments. And so word of praise for the reporting as well.

And regarding comments on the financial metrics, I want to limit myself just to a few points. What I noticed in the annual report was that you wrote regarding the radio tower business. Here, you have differing approaches depending on the market. And there are different markets, the U.S. and in Europe. In 2025, for example, in Europe, you spun off 3 towers in a separate company. Do you operate only purely opportunistically here? I find that hard to believe because the agreements on towers are usually long term. Or are there strategic considerations on how you want to deal with this tower business going forward. I also had a question about the USA and cyber attacks that took place in '21 and '22 and the court proceedings relating to these because Mr. -- I won't go into detail because Mr. Schmidt already asked a question about that, and I think it was adequately answered.

Next question that I have also relates to the business report for 2025. Under provisions, you talk about the personnel transformation program, which relates to a certain U.S. subsidiary. And could you tell us what this involves personnel adjustment measures in the U.S. And I also have questions about your forecast regarding future business trend. In business year '25, you attained pretty much all your goals, your targets in 2027 and the targets you've set for these in terms of -- you're behind these forecast values for 2027, and that -- it's very ambitious for '27 and '26 as well, the geopolitical situation is making it difficult and it might make it difficult to attain the targets for the year '27 as well.

That leads me to the following question. the '24 targets you communicated at the Capital Markets Day, are you going to adjust these? Or do you think these are still attainable this year and the next year. Political conditions have changed, also economic conditions, they changed significantly. And I'm thinking of the events in the Middle East and they could cause the economic situation to deteriorate this year. How do you see these macroeconomic risks? And in terms of my question is, do you want to stick to this assessment that you made previously? Or do you think telecom and the U.S. subsidiary will be able to weather these unfavorable conditions right now. And in this context, I have several additional questions.

Which of your segments as a result of the current situation might be particularly negatively affected. For example, problems in procurement, this was touched on earlier or development freezes on projects. And if this -- what measures do you have in your back pocket? And also the topic of tariffs in Germany and the U.S., we face a situation where this is one of Donald Trump's pet peeves. As a result of your market position in the U.S., can you pass on the costs? You've been successful in doing this in Germany thus far, you said. And what growth potential do you see in Germany and in Eastern and Southeast European countries, what's the competitive situation there from your perspective?

And in closing, I have a question about our stock shares. The cost of telecom share since the beginning of '26 has recovered. In 2025, though, the rate -- the share rate declined continuously. And you appear -- you comment on this in the business report. You say this development was impacted by the weak U.S. dollar and the weak share price development with T-Mobile's share in the U.S. Can you explain us why the T-Mobile share price dropped over the year and what the current expectations are regarding the share of T-Mobile in the U.S. going forward.

Thank you. This brings us to Mr. Jack Abramovitch, who will be speaking for the AG-Stiftung Stark Foundation. And after that, Mr. Christian Illek will answer the questions and then Mr. Christian Strenger and 2 and then 3 additional persons will be asked up to the podium to ask their questions. But Mr. Abramovitch, you lead the way.

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, Mr. Hottges, members of the Management Board and Supervisory Board. It's an honor for me to be able to speak before you this date, the 1st of April 2026 as a special day. We're looking back on the business year 2025, where German Deutsche Telekom not only showed that it can meet its targets, it exceeded them. I'd also like to express a word of thanks to you, Mr. Hottges, to the entire management team and the almost 200,000 employees worldwide. The adjusted EBITDA of EUR 44 billion and a free cash flow of almost EUR 20 billion are not -- don't just fall out of the sky. They are the result of resolute execution and a clear strategic vision.

In particular, I should stress the record dividend of EUR 1 per share. That's a historic payout for this company in a volatile market situation. Mr. Hottges, looking back over your entire term of office, one notices your success. When you became CEO in 2014, the share price was -- and the share price has increased dramatically over this time and the share -- the dividend has doubled from EUR 0.50 to EUR 1. You've turned telecom from a limping company to a European champion. In the U.S., you call the shots. And that means you are due our most profound respect.

Looking at the Business report 25 shows the reasons for this performance. the U.S. majority with almost 53% of T-Mobile U.S. means that you have cemented control over it. T-Mobile is the engine of the whole Magenta ecosystem now. Glass fiber optic turbo in Germany, the mark of 24 million homes passed was achieved. Last year, 2 million contracts were added to this. And this is the telecom provides the backbone of the German economy. More than 500 AI projects are ongoing, which shows that telecom is leading this technological revolution instead of just playing catch-up ball. But we have to talk about the -- what this -- the impact of all this growth is on other things, namely our net debt. Yes, it declined slightly last year. Nevertheless, we have a debt of EUR 132.5 billion. That's an amount that should cause -- give rise to concern as a result of high interest rates. The ratio is 2.62% in interest expenses, but this might need to be restricted or lowered a lot. We're buying back EUR 2 billion in shares, and we're pleased about this. But we wonder whether this money could not be better used to reduce the debt level. And based on analyst and statements made -- the analysts and the statements made since the last Capital Day, I have 2 questions.

With regard to the migration to fiber optic, have you thought that the parallel infrastructures of copper and fiber optic caused huge costs. In the past, you were talking about the switching off of copper by 2030. My question has been partially answered already. How many switching stations were switched over to fiber optic last year. And looking at the savings in costs, will these become -- will have the 100% impact by the end of 2027. And artificial intelligence, you said will be driving the margin in the future. At the same time, what percent of margin improvement in Germany in 2025 can be attributed to AI and automated processes? And how can you ensure that we won't lose service quality, which right now is our most important feature setting us off from the competition. Another point is debt management.

In view of the fact that a significant part of our liabilities have to be refinanced in the next 24 months. How do you assess the risk that increasing interest could cause headwinds in the future and the needed and could it jeopardize investment in 6G and other future technologies? Why is management prioritizing share buyback instead of spending the money on reducing the debt structure to optimize capital costs?

Deutsche Telekom is stronger than ever before today. T is shining all over the world. And we respect your performance, Mr. Hottges, but call for you to have very -- showed tremendous discipline so that telecom can become even stronger and get traction going forward.

Thank you. [ Mr. Abramovitch. Mr. Frank and Mr. Stanger, Mr. Thomas Lohninger, Mr. Markus Dufner, and Erna Demirdefran ] are the next -- will be the next persons at the podium. I'll start off with the question of Mr. Beckham regarding T-Mobile U.S. and stronger competition in the U.S. Our forecast for business year '26 and the following remain the same. In February, at the Capital Market Day, this was confirmed by T-Mobile U.S. and we're very successful. And the competition has -- they come and go with their announcements of price changes. But the bottom line is we have the best network, and it's getting better and better in the U.S., too. That differentiates us. We have the best service. We're a carrier. And against this background, it's -- there's no question that we're going to stay on our successful trajectory. We're not going for volume at any price either.

And if the competition takes off its gloves and gets more aggressive, then we'll have to respond on the cost side. But we have -- we are already better on the cost side than on the competition in the U.S., and we're banking on digitalization and AI. So we're doing our homework. We're staying fit for the future. And if the competition believes that they need to get more aggressive with their pricing, we will be prepared for that.

To what extent can Deutsche Telekom be actively involved in the consolidation of the fiber optic market in Germany? Where do you see the opportunities? And what are the options?

Well, we are referred to as the dominant company in the market. And I won't comment on that, but it's the case. And in this context, we believe that if we can help somebody that we will. And if a company is up for sale, then we'll take them into our portfolio. That won't be easy from an antitrust perspective, but we'll have to look at opportunities when they arise. But if larger stakes are involved, I think the German Cartel Authority and the antitrust authorities will be looking very closely at that. Also, the partnerships, one with Ivanti and then GlasfaserPlus, these are options -- we're working with local competitors to build infrastructure jointly, and that's also a model and for consolidation. And this, we want to offer communities partnerships if they want to build out fiber optic. And so all these things help when you have a lot of small competitors just fighting to survive and that allows them to have access to our customers in the market, too.

Question about the industrial AI cloud with the AI factory. What's the experience with this? And what's the current capacity utilization?

I'd like to express my respect for [ Fabian Hassan ] at T-Systems because his team within 6 months from the idea to this -- to the realization of this plan, that's how long it took 6 months, and that's a record time, and that deserves my utmost in respect. We've gained a lot of new customers over the last few months. We've been up and running for 3 months with Quantum system bots, Siemens, PhysicsX, these are all companies that are joining in. The utilization is said to be 40% right now. That's what we've achieved in a short amount of time, and we'll have to observe this over time and how intensely it developments, but the start-up was at least very promising.

Next question relates to the revision of the Telecommunications Act. You asked about property -- asset protection and reliability and whether it was an intensive positive dialogue with the policymaking sphere. I can put it this way. The switching off of copper, I commented on that in my presentation. We don't think that's acceptable. And if that happens, that will be tantamount to appropriation. And we will do everything we can to prevent that from happening. The revision of the Telecommunications Act, the Federal Network Agency is to have the right to initiate switching off of the copper network in the future. And I pointed out in the legislative procedure here that the Digital Ministry should improve FTTB and FTTH and build-out to apartment buildings and multifamily homes. That's where the priority should be set because we need the right conditions.

First of all, the right underlying conditions before we can roll out fiber optic in multifamily residences. So we welcome this initiative, and this will lead to legal certainty that will probably provide more clarity going forward in the next few months. You also asked about the reasons for the failure to have 50% green energy used in the contracts for electricity use. We didn't meet that target. That's true. We're at 26% right now. And this metric applies to the group, not including the -- and doesn't include the U.S. And outside Germany, our electricity needs are covered 100% by renewables. But with PPAs, we have limited capacities. We have to directly receive electricity directly from producers, and we've had to reduce this amount. So also the certificates of origin, we have to make use of these right now.

And of course, we're interested and concluding these PPAs in the first half of the year. So this number will increase, but it was the market that led to us only being able to attain 26%. You asked about the details regarding the climate transition plan. It's intended to -- for internal steering and planning of our emission reduction measures. And we have an interest group to achieve this target, and they inform the public on this. And the Management Board and Supervisory Board have confirmed this. Last year, we saw a major potential in the supply chain, but that didn't turn out to be the case. And so the measures we've already begun and additional activities will come online to attain the goals we've set there. Our annual plan is we want to reduce our targets there, and we want to -- we'll be relying on our suppliers and the supply chain to reduce CO2 emissions.

At the same time, reduction of greenhouse gases can be achieved in other ways as well, for example, through the use of our devices. Also satellite providers, including what does the competition from them look like in the U.S. and Europe, also in broadband and mobile, we've discussed this already. At present, we don't see any danger of cannibalization. In other words, we don't see any danger that the satellite producers and there's only satellite companies. There's only one really Starlink. AST don't -- and others don't have such a broad offer in the market as Starlink does. It's the leading technology with most satellites in orbit. And in rural areas, they have a very interesting offering for supply, and that's been in place for some time. And we're positioning our broadband offering and mobile because the broadband -- the bandwidth is much higher than satellite can offer. But the spectrum used by Starlink is much less -- significantly less than what we can use here terrestrially. And that's why because a lot of demand can't be can't be executed by satellite. It's just too much the volume.

And so we see this as an addition, an add-on to our mobile offering, and that's why we concluded this deal with Starlink so that customers have a redundant alternative supply regardless of where they are in the mobile area. So we see less risk of cannibalization, and we see it more of a supplemental. Also, you asked about [ Ivory Square from Space Rise ] and the plan Starlink co-collaboration in Europe. You asked how this fits together beginning in '28. [ Ivory Square ] and Starlink don't contradict each other. They both strengthen connectivity and European sovereignty independence. Also, they -- in the SpaceRISE consortium, we're -- yes, we're part of that and for things like 5G and also T-Systems with IT and computer center services to supply companies in Europe with this service. And the Starlink partnership, as I said, is concentrating de facto on direct-to-device. So basically, if they don't have mobile service, you can have -- you can communicate via satellite on your cell phone. These are both excellent supplements. Our strategy is with all these technologies to really provide the customer the best service in a simple way. And we're not talking only about exclusive satellite service and just working with one partner. We don't want to become dependent on one partner.

You also asked the question concerning the reorientation of fiber strategy in Germany. I already mentioned this and how we can go above the rate of 20% in the uptake rate. This is very important. We cannot only keep on building infrastructure, which is not used, but we have to utilize our infrastructure because it's enormous investments we are making EUR 2 billion to EUR 3 billion per year going into fiber technology. We have to improve utilization. We are good in the rollout to the homes, homes passed. And here, we are also having better productivity. We are cheaper, and we now have to go for utilization. And we do this with additional sales initiatives.

For example, the telecom shops that you are all familiar with were given new staff, and this staff also goes to the home so that you know who the people are and the people can give you advice at home how fiber infrastructure could be built, what it will look like, what is required for this. So this is an additional service that we offer. The same is true for multi-dwelling units. If we are in a building, then we can easily go to the families and ask them whether they want to switch to fiber. And we also saw that especially single-family homes have a higher take-up rate. And this is why we want to focus on single-family homes, especially in rural areas. And here, we want to win more customers. The owners of single-family homes simply see that the value of their real estate and also the reselling value is higher if they can already offer a fiber connection.

The next question by Mr. Beckendorf is regarding industrial AI cloud. Of course, we are not doing this for altruistic reasons, but also in view of the major gigafactory we are discussing for Germany, Deutsche Telekom does not need a gigafactory. Germany needs a gigafactory. Germany needs the sovereign data center architecture. And this is why Germany and the public authorities have to provide the necessary money. They have to book capacities and they also have to offer a reasonable energy and electricity price.

Then a company such as Deutsche Telekom can really go on investing. And we are in discussion with the European Union and the German government and we plan to scale up the business model. We laid the foundations already with our industrial cloud in Munich, and we can ramp up these capacities. And this will not only give us higher revenues, but it will also give us a better customer retention in other areas, for example, connectivity, which will open up new business models. You also asked about prerequisites for the big gigafactory. I already mentioned this. And by the way, such a gigafactory, the European Union wants to have 5 or 6 of them in Europe, it costs between EUR 8 million and EUR 10 million, one of them. And an investment in this size is only possible if you've got a good business plan that covers these enormous investments. So we need utilization.

The state has to be the anchor customer. And if it does and if it ensures utilization, we can go forward. And then we need good land, we need good electricity connections. There are good competitors in Germany, no worries there. But then the question is what will happen with the investments that were announced by Mrs. von der Leyen regarding the giga factories we want to build in Europe. We have to wait for the tenders, which will be published in the next few days. And of course, we have support of our partners for these investments, Brookfield, for example, the tower companies are also financed with them, but we also have the Schwarz Group. And if we were to build a giga factory, they already announced that they would join in, and this reduces the risk for Deutsche Telekom.

You asked about the towers and the tower business. This was a question raised by [ Mrs. Muir ] And you asked whether we are opportunistic in this area. Well, first of all, we started to privatize German towers, and we found Brookfield as a partner. We now hold 49% of this company. And in the European companies, we outsourced the towers into individual companies. We have not decided yet to put them on the market, but it's an option that we have, but an option that we have not used yet. And this would give us even more financial opportunities, and this will be used as soon as it seems to make sense and value generating. In the U.S., we don't own the towers anyway there. The towers are owned by large tower companies, and we only lease them. So we do have a strategic partnership with the company. We are very happy about the cooperation and the results, and Mr. Langheim is responsible for this. And as soon as Mr. Langheim gets involved, it will work, and I don't have any worries about our towers. This leads me to the topic of price increases in the United States and whether we could manage to increase prices there. Yes. This is one possible conclusion. It always depends on the market environment and the market dynamism, but the Americans also see this as a possibility to grow earnings.

And how far are you affected by the tariffs in Germany? This is a question to Mr. Illek basically, but I will take it over now. We always produce in the relevant country. We always are local with our networks, and this is true for our networks. This is true for our data centers. And so the tariffs do not affect our core business. There is a certain relevance if it's about procurement of end devices. For example, for T-Mobile U.S., devices or components of devices are now imposed by taxes and the devices are getting a little more expensive, but the Americans will pass on the higher costs to the customers who will have to pay more for the devices. So a short answer to the question is that the tariffs and the entire debates about tariffs are negligible to Deutsche Telekom or are even irrelevant.

This leads me to sustainability. Mr. Speich asked about the adjustments for climate and diversity and say on climate during the AGM. Well, Mr. Speich, we did not change any of our goals. After achieving our balance sheet climate neutrality, we'll continue to work on these goals, and we will stick to our goals regarding carbon emissions and energy consumption and circularity. This is a term we haven't used today yet. And transparency is of utmost importance for us, and this is why we also have an external report on this topic. We do not plan a say on climate for the next AGM and such a vote is not required. Currently, it is not recommended by the German Corporate Governance Code. Well, we should just do it and not just explain it. We want to be transparent in our reporting. We work to achieve our goals. And as long as we are successful regarding our carbon goals, this is more important than just explanations, but I'm still committed to this. The ecological situation is of utmost importance for our company. And this is the end of my questions.

Yes, perhaps I can take up say on climate from the point of view of the Supervisory Board as well. We don't have the ambition to have it in the next AGM. And Mr. Hottges, well, what else do we want to vote on?

Well, you have the possibility as the AGM not to grant relief on the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board. And so this is sufficient. We will not have a say on climate in the next AGM.

And now we move on to Mr. Illek.

Okay. Let me start with Mr. Beckendorf's question, whether we stick to the yield, the capital yield of 9%. First of all, the simple answer to the question is yes, but perhaps some more background information. We calculate this after tax. Not everybody is doing this. And there are no adjustments that we apply. And this means that in 2024, we had return on capital of 8.5%, which was a little lower than before, but this is a nonrecurring effect, and this gave us strong tailwind. And now we expect special costs regarding U.S.cellular, which are reducing the return on capital. But for the following years, we expect roughly 9%. The next question by [ Mrs. Muer ] is similar Capital Market goal '24. Let me point out the conference on the 25th of February, we've got 2 major challenges along the financial KPIs. First of all, the service revenue in Europe, 2.5% to 3%. And in this context, also the operational leverage. So the ratio between costs and service revenue because the service revenue is not what we wanted to achieve in Europe so far. So we've got 2 yellow lights. But basically, the expectation is that we are in line with our overall targets.

Next question, the share price of the Deutsche Telekom share. Why did it go down? And what is the effect of T-Mobile U.S.? Just to give you some background, T-Mobile U.S. on the 3rd of March 2024 was at USD 273. And now we are EUR 273. Why did we go down? Because there is a sector rotation. So the investors went into AI companies. This had an impact on the overall industry. But now taking a look at it, T-Mobile U.S. has a peak value of $210, which is 10% below. And we also had a weaker dollar, which is another 10%. And in fact, this means there was a drop by 35%.

If I take a look at the share price of the DT share, on the 3rd of March, we had EUR 36. We are now at EUR 32, so a drop by 10%. So the inherent value of the European business increased, although we have a decrease, but DT had a smaller decrease than T-Mobile U.S. This is explaining what happened at T-Mobile U.S. and at DT. Growth potential, another question by [ Mrs. Muer. ] In Europe. Well, I already mentioned this, and Tim already explained this, T-Systems and the European companies in 2025 showed an excellent performance, whereas the German companies showed a slight decrease. We now expect the German company to come back and to grow and this is also true for the other segments, but all -- for all the segments, we expect growth. Whether we will achieve the revenue corridor I mentioned is still to be seen, but now we are confirming all the goals without -- with the exception of the 2 KPIs where I said we've got a yellow traffic light at present.

Macro risks. The macro risks we are facing in 2026 from my point of view, are comparable to what we saw during the Ukraine crisis. Inflation rates and energy costs are the problem here. And you know that we hedge our energy costs over a period of 4 years. So the energy costs for the year 2026 have already been 80% have been fixed, and they are not affected by what is happening on the energy market right now. And now in the mid-run, we do not see any necessity to remove -- to go away from our targets. We have some risks regarding procurement for memory chips and other devices. There, the costs are going up, but we've got a bill of materials there down, and we calculate the expected price increases, and we've got a professional organization, which tries to mitigate price increases. And in other areas, we also have some optimization potential in the procurement area so that we do not expect a negative effect at the end of the year. Mr. Abramovitch, on debts. I do not see him now. I do not know where he is. He asked whether we should reduce our debt much more strongly.

Let me give you the debt ratio in the recent years. 2.78x in 2024, 2.62x this year. So we are going down in our debt continuously. And we also got an upgrade by Moody's. And if I take a look at the firepower that we have on our balance sheet, then I can say that we are much better equipped than any other European telecommunications -- services provider. Now on -- okay, there was another topic.

Do we have access to the capital markets? You know that we should have a refinancing of at least 2 years, EUR 12 billion bilateral facilities that we can draw EUR 6 billion refinancing needs in the next 2 years, if I remember correctly. So I assume that nothing can go wrong in this area. And then refinancing, interest risks, I mentioned this already. Okay. Let's move on to the next question asked by Mrs. Muer. These were special effects, provisions. We had special effects of EUR 1.1 billion, which were mainly attributable to the European business and the Americans had a major restructuring in the fourth quarter. They took out some management levels, especially in administration, and they focused on the management layer here. This is a program which affected several thousands of people, and this will be in the books for 2025, but only have an effect on us this year. So there are a few thousand people who were laid off in the United States. Okay.

Thank you very much, Mr. Illek. And this leads us to the next block of questions. Mr. Christian Strenger, first, then Thomas Lohninger, Markus Dufner, and Mr. Devran Demir. I do not want to restrict the speaking times further, but perhaps you can do it similar to what the previous speakers did because we've got more than 20 people on the speakers' list, and we would be grateful if you kept it short. Mr. Stringer.

Dr. Appel, ladies and gentlemen of the Supervisory Board and the Board of Management, Dear shareholders, my name is Christian Strenger, and I have been a satisfied minority shareholder for a very long time, and I'm Professor of the Corporate Governance Institute of the Frankfurt Business School.

Mr. Hottges is not here yet. So let's start with a more difficult question. There is the topic of whistleblowing, which is more and more important nowadays, and there are currently some news in the press about it. In order to cope with this topic with a good whistleblowing system for employees and customers is something that has just now gained importance again. And this is a system which should also have an external contact and reporting channel, which is easy to access in order to especially make employees safe against repercussions. And Deutsche Telekom has the tool of an anonymous whistleblowing system, but it doesn't point it out very clearly.

Because there is the possibility to also report incidents to BKMS. This is important for employees if they blow the whistle on very complex topics, it would be easy to guess who was the whistleblower. So it's important, and I looked into this topic in detail and the independent whistleblowing contact with the BKMS system is not really mentioned. So it would be important to make this a little clearer that you do not only have the TellMe system. I don't have any problems with the TellMe system, but that people also know that they can report their grievances to independent institutions.

Now the question, how many people reported an incident in 2025, especially how many employees reported grievances at the different areas. Then ladies and gentlemen, the important topic, how are we faring compared to our European competitors?

It hasn't been mentioned so far, but we are excellent here. We are 100% better than all of our European peers. And this is not only good news for the shareholders. And we could then ask ourselves, can't we take over one of these companies if they are quite cheap at present. This would be difficult probably from an antitrust point of view, but perhaps you could knock on some doors whether somebody might be available. And there is another question linking up to this. Are you looking around in Germany and in Europe? And are there any companies who are available and -- and the required financial options are there, as Mr. Illek already emphasized. Mr. Hottges, it's really a pity that you are not in the room right now because I wanted to pay you a compliment I wanted to tell you that you really gave a very good presentation at the beginning. But at the same time, this also triggers a question in the interest of the shareholders because if you can present Deutsche Telekom in such a wonderful and fascinating way, why don't you use this in advertising for Deutsche Telekom? It could be also interesting for us because last year, we granted a slightly higher compensation to Mr. Hottges. So if he is communicating to people directly, it has a wonderful effect, and this could really support the advertising of Deutsche Telekom, and we could perhaps get some of the money that we granted him back.

This was one topic. And another one. Mr. Hottges now has the contract up until 2028. Now as he also makes very important and relevant political statements, 2028 will be just before the next general elections. And if we all support this and he is willing to do this, he would be an ideal person for Berlin. There is a lot of work to be done in Berlin, and he cannot change from the Board of Management to the Supervisory Board immediately, and it would also be questionable whether Mr. Appel would admit this, but the German code of Governance says that you have to wait at least 2 years. But Mr. Wintels with his 25% could overrule this regulation.

But if I know him well, he won't do this. And so it would be a good opportunity because Mr. Hottges said this very clearly. Some things have to change in Berlin, and we need excellent people in Berlin, people who can perform well. And this would be very, very important. I already asked him the question a year ago in Frankfurt, and he said, no, it's so nice here at Deutsche Telekom. I can understand that. But if the contract expires, he can think about it again. So it would be a good idea if we had such high performance as Mr. Hottges to go to Berlin. I'm sure he will hear it somewhere outside this room. And if he comes back, perhaps he might also answer whether he would be willing to pursue this idea. Well, ladies and gentlemen, 8 minutes are over. That was everything I wanted to share with you, only a few thoughts. And Mr. Appel. So it's all good, but the time for the answers, I just roughly calculated this is twice as much time as the question time. So this is okay-ish, but to tell the shareholders to keep it brief is perhaps a little bit unfair. It would be good for the shareholders to have a little bit more time for the questions. That's everything. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr.Strenger. So we are waiting then for the answer also by Mr.Hottges.

Our next question comes from Mr. Thomas Lohninger.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, dear Internet. My name is Thomas Lohninger from the NGO and I represent the shares of the Ethical Shareholders Association. So I speak on behalf of the Internet and of somebody who actually helped to work on network neutrality between 2013 and '16. In 2017 and 2019, I also attended AGMs. And at the time, I said that the product stream on is a clear violation of network neutrality. So it violates valid EU law. And I was right because the European Court of Justice banned the product in 2021. So the highest EU court made clear that discrimination is unlawful also in telecom's rates. In 2019, I told you that the existence of StreamOn keeps data volumes artificially low to the -- at the cost of the population. I based my argument on a study, and I was right. StreamOn was banned. And since then, data volume went up dramatically without added cost for consumers. So the image is always the same.

Deutsche Telekom deteriorates its offering and its services and then makes its services scarce and makes these services more expensive. So it's an artificial scarcity. And only if that is removed, the situation for everyone will be improved. We see the same pattern when it comes to interconnecting the Deutsche Telekom network and all the other networks on the Internet. The global standard is to have this interconnection without any charge, bill and keep. Through interconnection, you get global connectivity. And this is what Internet is all about, right? Interconnecting different networks. And you can reach the entire network if you purchase just access. That gives customers a lot of choice, freedom of choice to access any network worldwide.

Unfortunately, telecom in this respect, violates network neutrality. 99.96% of all peering agreements are without cost, without charge. So you don't need to pay for this service for this interconnection. It's peering at the same level, and that is the best option for everyone involved. On telecom violates this principle. It's part of this 0.0004% that actually charge for this service. It can afford to do this because of its market dominance. And only within Germany, those who don't pay have difficulty accessing the total network. Only if you want to access other telecom customers, you have to pay a price for this. So we are not talking about small amounts here as the Tagesschau news has reported. We're talking about high amounts of money per money -- per month. We are talking about German research networks that during the pandemic were inaccessible to many during the lockdown, the COVID lockdown because telecom charged too much. We're talking about small regional Internet providers who are flooded with complaints by users because the interconnectivity didn't work. So the small provider has to pay the big monopolist so that their customers can send data into the network.

So I'm not surprised that Germany is lagging behind when it comes to network build-out. This is not a small versus big issue because the big players get a discount from Deutsche Telekom. So industry associations like [ CISSPAN ], for example, who only have European members have confirmed that this problem exists with Deutsche Telekom. Allegedly, Deutsche Telekom needs these payments because costs for them are so high because of the high data volume in the network. Do you remember how much data volume Telekom actually gave their users for free with StreamOn? Now this worked from 2017 to 2021. How is it possible that it's now so expensive so that it goes beyond Deutsche Telekom's means? So if [indiscernible] and Spotify send data packages to telecom, they do that because German users are using telecom services. So getting this access is a service that Deutsche Telekom sold to its customers. So we are talking about charging people twice for the same service. So they're getting this from their customers and then from the services that their customers want to use.

So the Internet line only works for Deutsche Telekom if 2 parties pay for it and either a hoster or somebody else that pays telecom. Only if the payment is made, data can flow. This is a paid fast lane, and this is a prime example of a violation of network neutrality. That's why my NGO, along with the Federation of German consumer organizations and others have lodged a complaint with the German telecommunications authority. On netzbremse.de, you can find this complaint with all the information, necessary information. And you can also leave a donation there. Now we are doing this on behalf of our customers because they are complaining about this problem. If you look for any help, on the telecom website, you will hear from desperate customers who are all telling the same story. I cannot use this service on the Internet. It's not loading. There is no connection. But if you pay for a VPN, for example, everything works fine. So what can I do? Telecom's official answer is, then why don't you use a VPN.

In other words, if the service of your choice is not paid by Deutsche Telekom, you have to pay for a VPN that Telecom offers. And so this is broken Internet. This is a violation of the core principle of network neutrality. There is one thing that really surprised me in this project. how much fear there is on the part of the companies involved, no matter where I looked, everybody has this problem with Deutsche Telekom and the enormous cost for interconnections, but hardly anyone dares to complain about this because whoever does will have to pay even higher cost or will be cut off from maybe 40% of the German market, which is like a death sentence for a European company.

So I'm just giving you the truth here. These methods are reminiscent of a Mafia movie and need to be outlawed. And this is why we have the Federal Network Agency, Telecommunications agency. I hope Mr. Muller will remember what they have to do in order to prevent these practices from occurring in Germany. Now let me ask my questions in the remaining 2 minutes. What is the revenue that Telecom generates from interconnecting networks per country? How much costs were incurred from the dismantling of StreamOn? And how many customers inside or outside the European economic area still have contracts with 0 rating functionality. Have you become aware of this aspect in the EU regulation? And what are the -- what is the impact on the company?

So next speaker is Markus Dufner from the Association of Ethical Chair shareholders.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Board Management, Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom AG, Mr. Hottges, Dr. [ Abe ], my name is Markus Dufner, I'm the General Manager of the Association of Critical Shareholders, and I'm speaking on behalf of our 29 member organizations at today's AGM. We represent Mr. [indiscernible] mentioned it already, almost 220,000 shares of many small shareholders.

Ladies and gentlemen, this year, my organization celebrated its 40th anniversary. I think that we haven't missed any of the 30 AGMs of Deutsche Telekom AG. My first one was in 2007. I'm especially pleased that [ Thomas Dohmke ] from [ Epicenter Works ] just spoke here at the AGM. I think he addressed the key issue. It's understandable that the complaint was lodged with the Federation of German consumer organizations. We support their demands so we are 100% behind this complaint.

And I'm going to give you a couple of more explanations. And we are not going to ratify the actions of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board. Mr. Hottges, how do you handle this situation that there is now a complaint against Deutsche Telekom because of the violation of network neutrality? Ladies and gentlemen, we wish for a responsible and customer-friendly Deutsche Telekom, but we are unfortunately still very far from that.

The issue of energy consumption. Mr. Pontzen from Union Investment already raised this issue. Deutsche Telekom is considered to be a sustainable company and emphasizes that it is climate neutral in its operations, but there are gaps due to the quick build-out of your infrastructure and the global data centers that you operate, energy consumption of the company has gone up enormously, an exclusive operation with renewable energies is not planned currently.

The energy consumption of data centers is really huge, as you mentioned yourself. Now if you have this insight, why are you not operating these data centers in a climate-neutral way? Some data centers use as much power as a small town. And this is going to go up due to the use of AI, and there's an enormous water consumption because the systems need to be cooled.

In Germany, we're still in a somewhat comfortable situation. But if you look at Southern Europe, for example, it's a completely different matter. And studies from the U.S. have shown that gigantic data centers will lead to a deterioration of air quality, water quality at the cost of -- at the expense of communities. And amphibians and small species depend on a natural environment. And I mean from what you said, I got the impression that you're not taking this seriously, the protection of flora and fauna because you kind of joked about it.

Mr. Hottges, please be honest how high are the emissions in the supply chain of Deutsche Telekom, when it comes to building service and data centers. Why are you not including the Scope 3 emissions? Because one thing is clear, the infrastructure that Deutsche Telekom is building and is using needs to be sustainable.

Another key issue is the plant cooperation with SpaceX and its Starlink system. Basically, the idea to close gaps in coverage, it makes sense, but there are enormous risks because Elon Musk controls Starlink, and he has already demonstrated that the decisions he takes can have global implications, for example, in the Ukraine conflict. Europe, could become very much dependent on one single U.S. company.

Also technical utilization is very limited because a very small number of terminal devices has even access to the system. We cannot afford this dependence. Infrastructure has to be transparent and needs to be controlled in the interest of our society. Questions on the U.S. business. Why is Telekom involved in U.S. campaign funding via T-Mobile? And it's not doing that in Germany. And what are the principles that you use to decide which political party to support?

Secondly, in your management report, you say that group-wide standards like the Supply Chain Act and the DEI policy will need to be adapted in the U.S. How can you talk about global responsibility if key human rights standards and environmental standards were not maintained in the U.S.? Why don't you have the ISO certification for industrial safety in the U.S. that applies elsewhere? Your U.S. subsidiary has stopped certain DEI programs. It seems after pressure coming from the U.S. government, why did you do that?

Deutsche Telekom insists on codetermination rights of its workforce. Why is that not guaranteed in the U.S.? And other questions about group-wide standards and human rights. Your human rights statement is voluntary without any monitoring mechanisms. When will Deutsche Telekom have a human rights governance that is in compliance also with the due diligence in the Supply Chain Act? How do you make sure that there are not double standards used by the company in the U.S. and outside the U.S., which could harm the company?

Three questions about remuneration, transparency and ESG inconsistencies. First, why, in the remuneration report, is there no reference to social standards, equal pay as prescribed by some standards? Then Deutsche Telekom actually excludes the U.S. business from its ESG targets. So why are you not including this in your reporting? Third, if the U.S. segment makes up more than half of your bottom line, how can an ESG record be credible if it doesn't take into account your U.S. business? How does Deutsche Telekom want to be globally responsible if the U.S. subsidiary is not included?

Secondly, when will your remuneration report also include ESG targets to see that the commercial success and the financial success is fairly distributed? And when it comes to agenda item 7, elections to the Supervisory Board, in the case of Dr. Appel, we would vote no. Item 9, remuneration of Supervisory Board members. We also will vote no. Item 11, we do not approve the remuneration report.

Dear shareholders, let me summarize, violation of network neutrality, high environmental burden due to data centers, lack of transparency with regard to Scope 3 emissions in the supply chain made clear that the Board of Management and Supervisory Board are not living up to our expectations. That's why my organization calls for a rejection of ratification of the actions of Board of Management and Supervisory Board. Thank you very much.

So next is [ Stefan Demir], who represents [ Ms. Stenbeck ] and after the next question, we'll answer the questions and then [indiscernible], Mr. [ Ebel Mene ] and Mr. [ Peter Schichl ] will take the floor.

Dr. Appel, Mr. Hottges, members of the Supervisory Board and the Board of Management, dear shareholders of Deutsche Telekom. My name is Stefan Demir, and I speak here on behalf of the umbrella organization of the critical shareholders and its 29 member organizations.

As discussed previously, we are at a watershed today for Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom is investing again, investing a lot in new AI factories and data centers, including the new facility in Munich, plus a lot of international projects for its business customer segment. So progress? Yes. But how are the employees involved in this? What is their share? As a former state enterprise, Deutsche Telekom has special responsibility in this regard.

For us, it is clear that we need a democratic and transparent infrastructure. Projects must be shaped such that civil society is involved and that the ecological implications are clearly defined that the interest of society are borne in mind beyond economic interest. And we are seeing double standards here. Employee rights and safety standards are not implemented and covered everywhere. Certain programs have been stopped partly under political pressure.

However, employee safety should not be dependent on the mood of individual managers. We believe there should be uniform standards for employee rights and for various processes, including external audits. And certain rights are completely ignored in the U.S. Energy consumption and things like that are not considered for remuneration and we believe that the reasons given are not right.

It looks as if Deutsche Telekom wants to make more profits in the U.S. at the expense of the environment. So the question for me is, why is it that Telekom is taking this approach to its U.S. business? Dear shareholders, so environmental pollution employee rights and risky partnerships make it quite clear that the Board of management has failed to meet its responsibility, which is why we demand that the Board of Management not be granted discharge at today's AGM.

Another important topic is Board of management remuneration. As CEO, Mr. Hottges received EUR 11.2 million last year, which was more than the usual EUR 11 million. That's the usual threshold. So when you look at the average salary, then we have a ratio of 138:1 here in comparison. Related to median salary, it is actually 589:1. And the entire remuneration paid to the Board amounted to EUR 40 million. And it wasn't quite clear to what extent all this money was connected to specific targets.

For instance, providing the right framework for investments and things like that. It's not transparent to shareholders how this can actually be guaranteed. And I would like to ask the Board of Management the following questions. What are your strategic targets? From your point of view, what are -- what is an environment that is conducive to investments? We also think that employees showed up their fair share. [ Verdi ] demands a 6.6% rise and EUR 120 more for trainees. That's the least you can do to make sure that your employees have a fair share of the company's success.

Dear shareholders, the decision for us is do we just want to have a Telekom that focuses on profitability and that accepts dependencies or do we want to have a company that also lives up to its social responsibility? We think it is time for a new course, Telekom should take responsibility for its employees, for the environment and for society as a whole. Thank you.

I would like to make an announcement. We are going to restrict speaking time to 5 minutes starting with the next group of speakers. It is now a quarter to 3. I would ask, if you still have any questions, please proceed to the speakers' registration counter because I am going to close the speakers list in about 15 minutes. So if you still have any questions, please proceed to the speakers' registration counter. Now we are going to answer some of the questions raised. Mr. Hottges?

[ Mr. Stringer, ] You mentioned advertising in connection with my remuneration. Now we will consider your proposal and we'll discuss it with our advertising colleagues. I don't think it's a good idea, but let's see what the colleagues are saying.

Then you talked about possible takeovers from European competitors, and you wanted to learn more about our investment plans in Europe and beyond. We generally monitor our portfolio, we always keep an eye on several options, and then it remains to be seen whether they will materialize or not. We're not doing any bad deals. If prices are too high, then we opt out. And yes, of course, there are always competitors for every transaction.

When it comes to organic growth in the fiber and nonorganic growth. There are several options. And yes, we are generally interested in making acquisitions, but that's all I can say here, anything else would be speculations, and we do not generally comment on M&A transactions anyway.

Let me get back to Mr. [ Luninger's ] comments. And to start things off here, it's just not right what he is saying. And I am saying that what he said is wrong. You talked about an alleged discrepancy regarding network fees.

Now we are not creating an artificial scarcity of data streams. Any asymmetric data streams as part of interconnection are completely common thing in our industry. The EU regulation on Open Internet expressly allows that we charge fees for peering and transit of data, and that does not breach the rules regarding network neutrality. And according to Dusseldorf, recently corroborated that the transfer of comprehensive data through our lines is a service that we can demand a fee for.

Well, first of all, this, it's got nothing to do with our agenda here today. Second of all, if you're not happy with the service we offer, why don't you go somewhere else? And thirdly, in the past, when we exchanged certain network services with others free of charge in the past, and that was because we gave data traffic, and we received data traffic. And if it was about the same amount of data, then no fees were charged. But now about 90% of all the traffic comes from the Internet companies, and we are not charging anything for it, which means that we are covering 90% of the various companies' networks.

We need to make sure that we have the necessary capacities for that. And we tried to then reach an agreement legally with other companies, and that wasn't possible because other big Internet companies said, what do you want to do? We just block all your networks with spam and all that other rubbish and that's it. And then I said, okay, if you want to do that, then we want you to pay for it. And I wouldn't know why that would be not legitimate. It's in the interest of the company and of the shareholders.

And then we said, if you don't accept that, then we'll take it to court. So we won against Meta in 3 instances and Meta will now pay $40 million to us in damages. So our point of view was actually corroborated in court. That's why I think all your allegations are completely unfounded.

You talked about energy consumption and our climate neutrality goal in connection with our data center in Munich. Well, what you said is not true. We are greenhouse gas neutral across our operations. And since 2021, all our electricity in networks and data centers, 100% comes from renewable energies, and that also holds true for Munich.

The new AI cloud center in Munich receives 100% green electricity and has a very efficient energy value of 1.2 and 100% of the electricity is green electricity. Plus we have a very innovative cooling solution of the [indiscernible] which is very efficient. And that's when I'm -- what I meant when I said flora and fauna and progress belong together. We want 100% green electricity, but we also want 100% progress in this country.

Then you talked about employee interests at our subsidiary in the U.S. Now there are often employees in our industry in the U.S. are not unionized. However, it is always possible to hold elections to form a union. All our employees in the U.S. have a right to join a union or to set up a union. Whether or not this is going to happen is decided by the U.S. employees as part of -- on the basis of U.S. regulations. We generally and globally respect the right of assembly, but we cannot change any existing laws and rules in the U.S. Mr. Singer.

You asked whether I wouldn't be the ideal person for the German parliament in Berlin. Well, I thought about that. And what I'm saying is everybody's got the right has an obligation to do something for this country. And I will also say that by doing my job here at Telekom, I am also making a contribution to the competitiveness of Germany as a country.

However, I also believe that I don't think I'd make for an ideal politician in Germany. Probably, I'm too stubborn for that, but yes. Well, I still have some time to spend at Deutsche Telekom anyway, so I can still think about it. And with that, over to my CFO.

Mr. [ Luninger ]. You asked about revenues and cost of interconnection. And what are the costs from the discontinuation of StreamOn. I have to disappoint you because we haven't been able to find any data on that. I can't comment on revenues or cost structures here. It's small financial contributions in total, small fees, as Tim already mentioned, so basically, we give data and we receive data and we don't have any numbers on the discontinuation of StreamOn, I'm afraid. I'm through. That was the only question I had to answer.

Okay. I have a couple of questions to answer first from Mr. Dufner. Mr. Dufner, you asked about the remuneration report and you said that would be important for the shareholders to see whether the company's profits are shared on a fair basis. I think it's important to look at 2 KPIs here. First of all, employee satisfaction and secondly, customer satisfaction, reporting began. Needless to say, you can inflate reporting beyond those KPIs, but these 2 are particularly important.

You will find them in the remuneration system, which is documented in the remuneration report of the Board and the company has reported extensively about this topic anyway for a long time. and we also report on the number of women in managerial positions and have been doing so for a long time. Of course, you can always demand more, but we believe it's in the interest of the shareholders that the most relevant factors are covered, and that's diversity and employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.

Mr. Dufner's second question, refer to [ EFSS 1 to 16. ] Of course, we also look at differences in pay. That is analyzed and evaluated. We look at how the salary or the pay of our members of the Board have developed over time and benchmark it against others, and we're not aware of any major -- anything that would give the idea that the pay is inadequate.

Then Mr. Damian, you said, please do state your strategic goals. And how can you provide a framework that is conducive to investments. Well, that would be a framework that allows us to generate return on investment on all the investments we make. Strategic goals. Let me give you one example for the CEO. The question was -- can we ascertain that we have a lean organization in place? Can we really monetize our networks?

These are the kind of goals. And as for the ESG multipliers, we look at scopes 1 and 2 as a basis. Why that? Why not Scope 3? Because transparency of Scope 3 is still kind of weary and cannot be guaranteed. These were the questions to me. Still any questions pending?

Yes, there's one more. Another question from Mr. Dufner. You asked about a change of programs in the context of diversity in the U.S. Well, first of all, we respect local law in every country where we have a footprint generally. And all of these countries are democratically legitimized and so we respect the basic values and equal opportunities, and this is the compass that we will remain committed in all of the countries where we have a footprint, rights, are not generally violated. And whatever happens in the U.S. is based on U.S. law and U.S. regulation.

As for the employees of T-Mobile US, [ Mike Ziebart ], the CEO at the time, made it clear that value such as inclusion, tolerance and a safe environment for all employees to be adhered to. That was made quite clear, and this has also been confirmed by the current management team in the U.S. and yes, this is certainly in line with the gold and the values of Deutsche Telekom overall.

Mr. [indiscernible], you asked how much information was disclosed on your employees worldwide? And somebody said that tell me, it's not shared in transparent way. It was said that some information is provided through the tell me whistleblower portal. In 2025, we had 361 compliance-related hints, 275 of which came from employees in the whistleblower system. And whenever there is a hint, we have a special department in place under the responsibility of Mr. Bohle and they look into it.

And now the last question, that's about Scope 3 emissions. We said that we use 100% renewables for our data center service and network technology that falls under Scope 3 emissions. And we transparently report on those emissions in our relevant reports. And in our reports, we also make it clear how we want to achieve climate neutrality in the future.

And in terms of AI, we have an enablement factor of 1 to 4, that is relevant to us. making networks and processes more efficient, will also help us to reduce emissions further. And by the way, AI is quite helpful in many areas when it comes to improving our carbon footprint. And that's why this is also part of our Scope 1, 2, 3 documentation.

Excellent. And that brings us to the next block of questions. The gentleman that I have just named should step up to the podium to give their presentations and questions.

My name is [ Renard Matias ]. I'm a private shareholder and have been since 1996. So I'm someone who -- so just a retroactive look. I think it's a pity even though I registered before this event, Dr. Appel, and we had problems last year. I think it's a pity that before I even start, you reduce my time. You've been doing it better than last year, but you have room for improvement.

And I would ask you because it's not good when you come here as a shareholder. I came from freiburg, and I spent the night in a hotel. And we have tax on our dividends. And you're the only person in Germany that I know, probably because this used to be a state-owned company, where indirect shareholders get to speak first. and then the actual shareholders have to wait till last.

So let me briefly trace back over the last few years. In 1996, you went public with an incredible advertising campaign, but as a kind of a weak company, given your past as a state-owned company today, you're a strong company, a powerful company. And you've gotten rid of a lot of the ballast from the state-owned time. Although the state as a shareholder is still around.

But this shareholder, the state, has never said that they thought that Telekom is bad. The Supervisory Board and the management Board. And that's amazing, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you what I thought was bad about the last 30 years, though. There's been 3 placements of shares and a lot of -- there's been a lot of ruffled feathers, Mr. [indiscernible] was an advertising figure, regretted doing that advertising for Telekom. And he died 10 years ago, and I took the liberty of researching this, and I'm glad that you've finally reached a phase where you're paying good dividends.

And including, closing this gap between [ 332 and 105 ] and that's an achievement of Mr. Hottges and his team. But what really infuriated me as a shareholder over the last 30 years was once you had T-Online listed on a public exchange, what you did and I didn't like that IPO with them. And also there [indiscernible], he was a CEO of T-Systems, he died, unfortunately, 30 years ago. And in my opinion, he did a lot for Deutsche Telekom, T-Connect and I think we should hold him fondly in our memory because I think he did a fantastic job.

And preparing for today, I looked more closely at several things that I'm interested in. I've been a shareholder for many years, not just in this company. Mr. Hottges and his team probably know about AI, which answers about 80% of the questions today. I'm not a Telekom customer and need to be acquired. I'm just an average guy. And every producer of every producer of diapers, of nappies knows how much they can sell to consumers, so an average AI should know what amount of sales can be generated in the life cycle of an individual. Do you calculate that because that's an important metric, I think?

I have a feeling sometimes when some speakers are up here that they present a skewed picture of Deutsche Telekom and its business. But since I'm here standing in front of you, I'd like to ask about it. And if you terminate my speaking time too quickly, Mr. Chairman then I will object. But first, let me come to my question. If I see things correctly, the business in the U.S. was acquired at some point but not as a subsidiary, but rather through numerous mergers and management work.

It's a listed company, which has a very high market capitalization of EUR 250 million -- billion. And as far as I know, it's the only listed company in Germany. You're the only company in Germany that has a successful business in the U.S. That's pretty amazing. Usually, the Americans usually don't -- aren't open to European investors. Just look at what happened to [ Bayer ] and [ Laverkusen ], right?

German companies burn their fingers in America usually. But if I understand your strategy correctly, and it would be good if you could explain it more. Do you attach importance to the defacto majority stake? We do have more than 50.1% of the share of their U.S. business is supposed to grow, supposed to pay out dividends. And if it has money left over at the end of the day to buy back shares?

And that also brings money into the purses because -- but you don't seem to valuate the shares in the U.S. But if we have 53%, then the CEO probably gets together with the CFO, to decide on whether to sell 1% or so. And then that means a big injection of money coming to Germany. Did I understand that correctly? Because some statements have been erroneous in this regard.

So is this a very successful listed company that bears similarity name to the German business but you're actually just the majority shareholder? And does that mean that you really tell them what to do in America. But I would also like to know one thing. I submitted a question, if I submit a question, will I get a written response? Would you agree to that? Yes, I'm glad.

I have one request. That's really important to me. A big request and something I don't understand at all. Deutsche Telekom, for me, is really, yes, a blue chip name on the public exchange. And last year, I said I would like to have the staff capital participation. And then it was [ 1050 ], and then it was 2,000 beginning on January 1. But I didn't get a response from you. So I assume it's still 1,000. We talked about capital formation on the agenda and the Head of HR has a huge interest in this. If I look at the website of your Investor Relations.

I see [ KWA ], federal government and investors. I understood that shareholders of Telekom but do one thing. You're a beacon in the capital market. And even if you provide a 10% discount, every American company does that. Why are the Americans and their T-Mobile U.S. so successful? Because they know how to motivate people, and I would urge you to do the same, think about it. And then capital investors will respond looking out there, there's twice as many people as we see here. And also the interns that you hire, I think you should give them a bonus.

Well, thank you. You've spoken longer than anybody else, but I still request the speakers to limit themselves to 5 minutes. [ Maximilian ] is next, followed by [ Daniel Verner]. I have an announcement to make. I wanted to say that the registration counter has now been closed. So Mr. [ Abela].

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for Dr. Appel for introducing me [ Maximilian Eberles], my name from [indiscernible] I'm the shareholder representative of #48812. And I have the following observations to make because this is a multibillion company, and we have a speaking time. I need 15 minutes because it's very complex.

And you allotted in the -- a huge amount of time to other persons to ask their questions. And that's why I would ask for the shareholders to be given more time to ask their questions. We're talking about a shareholder culture here in a positive light and that we should also be given an ample time. We're not looking for confrontation with -- and you're not looking for confrontation with the shareholders. but some critical questions are going to be raised and have already suggested that the speaking time be increased to 15 minutes, it's worth it.

And even if we're here till 10 p.m. then we'll be here till 10:00 p.m., but then we'll -- all the persons involved, all the stakeholders will be satisfied then because I thought that [ LEGO ] thing was pretty childish, but Germany, at least was shown on that little model, but all the other countries you're present in, weren't there. I think you meant it well, but the whole history behind that? And how many countries do you operate in?

For example, it's fantastic to look at these nominations here. And I would expect that the Management Board and Supervisory Board would comment on these nominations, but on Page 3 and 4, what they say there. I have my doubts as to whether that corresponds to the truth. I would be embarrassed if this was a sales product because -- and then last year, I asked you about the cost of gas.

But I also asked how many people are affected by that -- and of course, how great the expenses were in 2025. I would like to know how much you spent for that. And I would be interested as well. Would it be conceivable that as an on honorary guest for next year that Mr.[ Bauer], the architect of the [indiscernible] building could be invited here because he doesn't live far away, and I think it would be just a show of respect because this building is unique throughout the world.

And that's just a positive suggestion and to invite him as an honorary guest to this event. Even though it doesn't really have to do with telecom business, but the following 50 years ago Apple was founded. And -- as you know, that's a huge multinational company with an annual revenue of EUR 400 billion -- dollars. I mean, it's a little weaker now, of course. But that's exactly -- what I'm talking about here the business in the U.S., the dollar is a critical variable in the equation.

And how much revenue is generated in the U.S. All of that is subject to this currency risk. And how about other countries, though, like Africa, they're considered to be growth drivers? Where do you see potential out there with real sustainability which will really drive growth at this company. And in the coming 5 years, up to 2030 the average salary in Germany is EUR 80,000.

You said 10 minutes. And I think it's impolite if for no reason, you shorten my speaking time.

Can you just ask your question? That's what's important.

No question. I see the clock. And I assumed 10 minutes would be allotted time, but I think it's not necessary to cut me short because I want to say a lot more, but it's a pity. But nevertheless, I really cross my fingers for the 190,000 employees here. And in closing, I'd just like to observe -- I'd just like to ask the quota of severely disabled persons at your company and another recommendation positively meant as a former employee who has died now and I think next year, we should have a moment of silence for all those who are no longer with us. And I thank you for your attention and hope that this event continues to get traction as a positive event.

Yes. Next, Mr. [ Verner], and then [ Peter ] and then we'll answer the questions.

Yes. Good afternoon. My name is [ Daniel Wanamaholder], and I am a customer, shareholder and a citizen of this country. And in these 3 functions, I have a few comments and some questions addressed to the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board.

My first point is about the fourth migration of Mega 12.0, if when you have MagentaTV, just some background. I used to use the media received. I was highly satisfied and I could watch programs over and over again when I stored them. But now it's gone this piece of technology will be gone. It's c***, and I got a MagentaOne box. I hope it works. And the target date was the 31st of March. And I was wondering whether the date of the AGM is in direct context. I will be surprised whether it works or not, but the following questions on this.

Has there ever been an agreement with the users, whether they wanted to have this forced migration being a restriction I think it's rather autocratic and not democratic to just switch off this technology. What would have been the additional costs if you still had a parallel operation of the old system? What are the experiences so far by customers who had problems? Who didn't have any problems?

Will you have further adjustments regarding the user interface if the experience is not so good. I heard that with EPG, the function is not very good and people are not satisfied. But the main point, why Google? Without Google, you will not get an image and TV any longer, and I don't like it. First of all, coming back to your refusal Mr. Hottges, to switch off the copper network, I think it's good that you have such clear view. But for Magenta 2.0, there was no problem to just switch it off, to retire the system.

Isn't there an alternative to Google, this data stealer? I think you are giving the data for free. In Munich, it's different for the business customers, you use SAP. But for the normal people in the street, you have to use Google and you can't do it without it. Just a question, was there money paid from Telekom to Google or from Google to Telekom? Or is this a win-win, loose situation? So Telekom win, Google win and customers lose because we no longer have the option to choose.

Then the next point. I really try to be quick. T-Mobile U.S. For me, it's quite worrying that we are so dependent from the U.S., the revenue from the U.S. And this is market in a country which is led by a dilettante, by an autocrat. And I would like to know about your strategy in this country. There was the strange meeting, which Trump in 2025, where Zuckerberg and Altman and Cook and everybody were there. Was Mike Sievert involved as well, did Mike Sievert that get an invitation, did he follows this invitation? And secondly, would Mr. Gopalan be invited in a future meeting and would he come or wouldn't come? Well, T-Mobile U.S., the task of the DEI program is a political statement.

This is something that you have to be very clear about. It's a statement a political statement, if you wish it to be or not. And perhaps, you could have done it in a better way because this is really now a stain here.

Then fourth point, fiber rollout. Last year, I asked you, do you see the end of the road regarding the requirement of speed and volume on the part of the users. I have to say that I'm absolutely happy with DSL and copper cable and if I don't have to, I will not use fiber. So you already said that you won't switch off the copper lines, it's not yet imminent, but I would really feel bad if somebody would just tell me, ESL and the copper line, while it works.

My experience is if a piece of software is renewed, then it's really very difficult I would say, never change a winning system. And here, I see the light flashing, I'm very sorry. I'm not finished by far. And I would like to continue. So banning smartphones from the schools. I also asked it last year. People always say the media competencies of our youngsters have to be improved. It's just like sitting in a boat where the water is already coming in and then you start teaching them swimming without giving them the rescue rig. So what is the impact on your revenues for example, for many hours per day, the mobile connection will be switched off for young people.

We have responsibility for our people. And AI in soft toys is crime. It should be banned. And we're not talking about sustainability now, although I have to say it's euphemistic to say, we will just give the heat to the [indiscernible]. It was its name then. Wouldn't it be possible to just use this heat for district heating? You create heat, and you then hand over the seat to the municipality to the utility, and they will have warm water and warm plants. Then the psychological footprint of your activities are very important. And this leads me to the topic of AI is the Pandora's box that we have opened.

It's a technology, which combines blessing and curse. I will not say that it's all bad, but a lot is bad. And especially if applications are moved to the Internet and are exposed to everything. You can have cyber attacks fake news.

Can I ask you to ask your questions because we have been talking 2 minutes too long already? I didn't get this. Please come to your questions now.

Okay. My question is, what is the ethical attitude of Deutsche Telekom and especially you, Mr. Hottges regarding AI, especially regarding cyber abuse, manipulation the gates are open, especially for aggressive cyber applications. regulation is required. Do you want the users, developers and the connectivity providers such as Deutsche Telekom to make certain -- to take certain precautions. I think it's not good if you just leave it to the parents.

AI is something that has now escaped into the world, and now you are trying to get it in again, but this is -- it is too late in many areas already. Now I have to skip a lot of the things I plan to say, which I think is a pity because it's important for me as a customer, as a stakeholder and as a shareholder.

Mr. Hottges, please be responsible. AI is a technology which is might be much more of a curse than a blessing. Talk about the bad points of AI and please accept that some people want to have an analog life and still want to control their own lives. And I would like to pay a complement to the call center employees, the agents of Deutsche Telekom because if you really want to talk to a real person, where you can perhaps exchange jokes and sometimes also call.

This was also working very well, and I always got gave 5 stars. I got another message asking me to give an assessment and I will send a very good one because it was good. Well, of course, perhaps at some point in time, people might say, it's Mr. [indiscernible], again. He doesn't want to talk to the chatbot. I will immediately lead him to the real person. And this is really why I want to talk real human beings.

Thank you very much, Mr. [ Verner ] then we've got Mr. [ Trian, ] and then we answer questions, and then we'll have another list of people.

But first, Mr. [ Streich ]. Ladies and gentleman my name is Peter Streich, and I represent my family's own shares. And when I say, ladies and gentlemen, I'm really talking to everybody because the gendering is something that I do not like. I want to have a clear language, and this is also true for the critical shareholders.

This is really an insult because this also means that people who are not part of the critical shareholders are stupid and idiots. No, everybody here invested into the share, but he also have to take into account that everybody has the same value. The presentation at the beginning given by Mr. Hottges really deserves our respect. It was wonderful. And if you retire in 2028, all the Federal chancellors would be happy to have you as the department head of the press department.

But you would probably lose 97% of your income, but perhaps the remaining income would still be enough to buy some Telekom shares for your grandchildren. Mr. [ Strenger ] already said this. Yes, you have to go to Berlin. Perhaps you say this person is too, talking too much, but I have 70 years experience in politics, and I saw that many people who were very aggressive in the beginning, but were then tamed down in politics.

And probably this would also happen to you, and we can talk about it bilaterally, if you wish. You also said that the group uses a lot of AI, but I also think you've got the Easter bunny also as one of your employees because I was suddenly moved backwards in the list of speakers. I got on the list together with Mr. [ Strenger ], but then I'm 8 places behind him. I would like to praise you that you have a face-to-face meeting here. And I will also tell you one, democracy sometimes is a nuisance, but it also need some meetings until 9, 10, 11:00 in the evening. More than 55 years ago for two terms of offices, I worked as a scientific consultant and the best times were after midnight. You learned a lot. That was really democracy when most of the members of parliament were tired, you really could talk the truth.

So perhaps we should really say 10 minutes for everybody or 15 minutes for everybody. But let me come back to this chair. I will appeal to you not only to the benefit of the Telekom share, but to support shares in general. For several reasons, we will not be able to pay pensions in the future if you don't have shares. There is a misdistribution of wealth and you need shares. And if AI does not only replace experts, but liquidates experts, it's difficult how to manage your life. So you have to invest in shares over and over again, and you should not have a tax discrimination.

Mr. [indiscernible] has said that you wanted to give a benefit to the shareholders as compared to workers or employees.

No, this is absolutely wrong. This is improvement, an improvement for all the dividends for the smaller people to 100% and for the richer people, only 11%. And then the disappearing Board member for technology has been mentioned before. But the question is, will the company also be able to request money from him because this is also possible if somebody leaves so quickly. I think the Supervisory Board was sleeping too much. A [indiscernible] always asked what is the difference between [ dog's hut ] and the Supervisory Board? And this is really telling you that the Supervisory Board is not used of any use. But now the United States.

I've got a very specific question on that. Deutsche Telekom, United States is paying something for the 250 years celebrations. This is the celebrations of the independents. Is it ruled out that money of Deutsche Telekom of us of the employees is flowing into this building of the new hall by Mr. Trump. And the U.S. President in order to be careful, has very interesting ideas. If he comes up with the idea and says, well, my [indiscernible] colleagues phone so much, but then all this money will be given to T-Mobile U.S., and he will say that the profit is going to the [indiscernible] Germans, well, we have to ask about the taxes. Is there a possibility to fight against this? And I already see the red light flashing, but red is a wonderful color of love and blood that it's always seen as negative here. I don't really like it.

Could you please ask your question?

I am on it. So how many sponsors -- how many -- how much is sponsored, how much does Telekom sponsor Bavaria Munich and the Telekom baskets and the cultural field? And the last question on the Football World Cup. What made you give the money -- the good money of Deutsche Telekom to one of the most corrupt persons in the football world, Mr. Infantino. I read that the two broadcasting stations are paying EUR 172 million to the FIFA and how much are we paying? How much did we pay? Will this be a profit or a loss for us? Thank you very much, and have a good Easter period.

We'll now move to the answering of the question, and then I ask Mr. Hannes, Mr.[indiscernible] and then Mr. [ Floain Ella ]. The only question that you asked me, if I remember correctly, and I'll have to check it up, you asked me, we can invite the architect of the Telekom as an honorary guest here. Well, we have never discussed to invite guests here to the AGM, but I think we should rather be careful and not invite any special guests, but we will take it up, and we will discuss this. Perhaps we can invite guests in the future. And now over to Mr. Hottges.

So Mr. [indiscernible] question. So if the stake in T-Mobile rather than selling them, if we keep them, whether this would be profitable, yes, it's true. We can generate cash through this. But we said at the start of the year that we are not going to sell into the share buyback program because it's a high-value asset.

So it's worthwhile keeping our stake and even raising it in T-Mobile U.S. So definitely not below 50%. How much revenue do we generate in the U.S.? Are there any activities planned in other countries?

First of all, 2/3 -- roughly 2/3 of our revenue comes from the U.S., 21% in Germany and 10% in the European portfolio and 3% comes from T-Systems. Now what we are doing now, and we've seen this before, whenever we somehow ramped up our activity somewhere, it's in those markets that are going well. So we're not going beyond this right now. We're not expanding the current portfolio right now. So nothing is planned on this score. Customer acquisition, what's the average revenue per customer across the life cycle.

So revenue, earnings per customer per life cycle, we don't publish those figures. We report the KPIs, and we basically manage value comes before quantity and we reward long-term loyalty. But the life cycle revenue, we don't report this publicly.

What is the ratio of people with severe disabilities in 2025 was 7.75%. So there's a legal requirement of 5% of the workforce, and we are above that legally required ratio. So we've always felt committed to people with serious disabilities, and this will not change. So we are above the legal requirement. So these were my answers.

So let me pick up here. Mr. [indiscernible], you are mentioning the credibility of including the U.S. business in our ESG reporting. So we actually don't separate the segments. So we, of course, include the U.S. segment in this. You mentioned a group-wide human rights governance system by including T-Mobile U.S. So Deutsche Telekom faithfully implement the requirements of the due diligence in the Supply Chain Act. Deutsche Telekom as an independent stock-listed company -- T-Mobile is an independent stock-listed company. So it is subject to U.S. regulations and not German regulations. So it is not impacted by German legal regulations.

Mr. [indiscernible], you raised the question about the number of customers with 0 rating and network neutrality. So with regard to the 0 rating customers, I don't have any figures that I can share with you. We, of course, comply with all legal regulations. I pointed out before that we report to 230 agencies, authorities. So we are permanently monitored and there are no problems that we needed to talk about. Is there a commitment to network neutrality as part of the Digital Network Act?

So first of all, of course, we championed the open Internet. We also committed to a flexible legal framework within the European Union. However, we think it's very questionable that the EU is now missing a chance to adapt the current rules to modern technologies like 5G slicing, and that's why we call for an innovation-friendly legal framework. We are committed to a high-performance open network, and we have always pointed out that we will stick to the law.

When it comes to the data traffic management and the interconnecting with other networks, We, of course, respect the open Internet regulations in Europe. Line network neutrality, as Mr. [indiscernible] is calling for, would lead to a dire situation that everybody has the best possible bandwidth. It sounds good. But if you operate a machine, a robot that has to respond in milliseconds. And if you download a video or send a text message and you need milliseconds, then I don't understand why the fastest capacity must be available to everyone.

It's not logical. You won't find it in China or in the United States. It's, again, an invention of the European Union, and it will harm our economic future. So my appeal is that every service, of course, has to be available to every customer, but there has to be an option to differentiate our services according to the technological requirements that we have, whether it's a robot, whether it's an ambulance or a police patrol vehicle because the networks today can provide this differentiation. So we don't want a blind network neutrality definition, but a differentiated network, which supports the performance of our economy.

So now let's move on to the complaint that was lodged on this issue. I think I've made a clear statement here. The higher regional court in Dusseldorf has confirmed our legal perspective on network neutrality. So this demand in terms of -- in terms of the fair share when it comes to peering, has been upheld by the German judges.

Now next topic, waste heat in Munich from the data center. It's good that you're raising this question, Mr. [ Werner ] because I -- obviously, I didn't -- I wasn't clear enough in terms of the Eisbach Now the Eisbach, we get water from this river. The data center, of course, heats up the water. We use the heated water in order to heat basically the entire area, the Tucherpark in Munich, and the waste heat goes into the heating system, which cools down the river again.

And after the water has cooled down, it will be again discharged into the river. Now this is an optimal use of waste heat, and this is also in line with the EU regulations with national law and in the Munich case, also local requirements. This is exactly what we are managing to do here with the distance heating network that we have set up along with the data center. And I think it's an exemplary situation.

Now let's move on to human rights standards. As an international group, of course, there is always a tension that we have to navigate between different sets of laws. In Europe, we have legal guarantees of for equal opportunities and EU regulation on gender quotas, for example. And we are pursuing these objectives as they are stipulated. The Board of Management also makes sure that the requirements of the German government -- Corporate Governance code is complied. And T-Mobile U.S., of course, is always in line with applicable U.S. regulations and legal requirements, which we pointed out before. And they don't do anything that violates our set of values. Mr. [indiscernible], you asked about the lack of the ISO certification 45044. So on industrial safety, we make sure that in terms of industrial safety, all applicable rules are complied with. Secondly, certification with this ESO standard is not necessary. Wherever a tender requires it, we will always implement the necessary requirements. And the DEKRA, for example, is a certification institute, which will always confirm our compliance in these cases.

You also talked about the global footprint. Now Deutsche Telekom has a footprint in 50 countries worldwide. Mr. [indiscernible], you raised the donation T-Mobile U.S. for the 250th anniversary celebration in the U.S. and the construction of the ballroom in the White House. Now T-Mobile U.S. deliberately did not donate any money to the ballroom, but the National Mall in Washington, D.C., which includes the White House. T-Mobile has no influence on how the money of this fund is spent in Washington, D.C. I mean, it's a common practice for U.S. companies to donate money to this organization.

And of course, it's a duty and it's also our commitment to do this on the occasion of the 250th anniversary celebrations. Mr. [indiscernible], you talked about growth potential and real sustainability and the fact that this provides some tailwind for us. I absolutely agree. Our customers are very much aware of whether we act sustainably or not. And also our human rights record. If you consider our campaign against hatred in the web or environmental issues, you can see that we attach great importance to this and also to communicating this, we see the biggest impact in the interaction of sustainability and digitalization, especially energy-efficient networks, with high resource efficiency to somehow translate this into practice.

The sustainability issue is not just an ethical issue for us, it's also an economic issue. I don't need to tell you if you can save on power, on energy now because you have smart networks, you will save a lot of money. And suddenly, sustainability becomes an economic factor. And then everybody enjoys doing this. So especially when it comes to energy and circularity for us, it makes economic sense, and this makes it even more important. Mr. [indiscernible] asked about double standards, U.S., Europe when it comes to the brand and reputation, now the Americans use the T.

They use the brand in an identical fashion. The fact that we are the most valuable brand in Germany, well, not just in Germany, but the most valuable brand in Europe ahead of companies like Adidas and Mercedes. And it's due to the fact that our, that we have a very consistent approach to our brand worldwide. We present it very consistently. T-Mobile U.S. pays license fees to us for using our brand in the U.S. And T-Mobile U.S., like all other -- like all of our other companies are subject to national legislation, national law.

So we always have to fit into the respective legal system and customs also. Mr. Werner, you asked a question about the DEI program at T-Mobile, and you said that we had given it up and what it really means to us. Now diversity, equal opportunities and the conviction not to be party political, but to act as a company on the basis of sound values.

Well, I like T count on me is the U.S. translation of our German slogan. So you can see these identities match. The U.S. government with a view to the DEI programs has made new legal requirements, and these were published, and we have been very transparent. Of course, we need to comply with these requirements.

Next question from Mr. [indiscernible]. The demand for bandwidth and high speed keeps growing. The data volume in our fixed line network goes up by 15% every year. That's why we set our faith on fiber because it's much better. I remember AGMs when we were criticized by many people for not having any fiber, no fiber network. And now we are leaders in fiber build-out. Of course, not everybody feels the need to purchase a fiber connection, but we need to act early. We cannot start acting when people feel the need to purchase fiber. So we have to act now definitely.

So we will keep working on this. And we are by far the leader and far ahead of other investors when it comes to fiber build-out. And in the future, you will be happy that this management here actually pursued this build-out so strongly because it will make sure that we are a highly profitable company in the future.

A question by Mr. [indiscernible] whether a windfall profit tax is planned in the U.S. I have no information that the U.S. government is planning a windfall profit tax. Mr. [ Sticher ] there was another question whether after Mr. [indiscernible] left, there were still any claims from Telekom. Well, if certain things develop differently from what we expect, then we -- some claims might arise, but we don't have any current claims.

So this wraps up the answers to the questions from the last block. And now Stefan Heinz is the next speaker. We have 17 requests for the floor still on the list. So I would like to ask every speaker to really stick to their 5-minute time allotment.

Stefan Heinz. So Stefan Heinz does not seem to be here. So let's move on to Mr. Oswald.

Mr. Oswald, should I call up someone else first? Okay, then Michael [ Zalton ] will come to the stage. Where is Mr. Zalton? He's not here either. Then I think Mr. Oswald is ready to take the stage.

Well, is Mr. Heinz here? He should raise his hand and Mr. Zalton. Well, you can see that it really makes sense to limit speaking time. Mr. Oswald, finally. So you cannot just violate shareholders' rights. You have to play by the rules because every shareholder has certain rights according to the German Stock Corporation Act, and you need to comply with them even if you don't like it.

Maybe you have some plans for tonight. Today is April 1. Maybe it's an April fools prank, all of this, including the 5-minute speaking time limit. Mr. Hottges, why are you smiling? Would you like to take a peek because I've brought along some newspaper articles. This is what things look like in law in my hometown. I just wanted to show you what's happening there on the ground. I will explain this in a minute. Mr. Hottges I will come to your seat later. So don't worry, everybody would get something to -- so just forget about the 5 minutes.

So I will submit a motion later because this simply won't -- I can't cram it in 5 minutes what happened in law. I was here before and I brought some newspaper articles. I showed them to you, and you asked me to -- I mean, you said you would look into it, but it has not been solved, resolved the problem, the fiber problem in my community.

So just read the newspaper articles. Every week, we have full page articles on what's going on there. So it's very hard to describe this in words. My computer just shut itself off. I will just start. And if you interrupt me, I have a number of motions I have filed a counter motion. Actually, my speaking time cannot be limited. So how do we handle this now?

Because counterproposals, I can submit them. I can read all of them out or we agree on a different procedure on a deal maybe should we strike a deal?

So my name is Heinz Oswald. I will comment on agenda items 1 to 11. I welcome all the listeners, the owners of Deutsche Telekom. Ladies and gentlemen up here are our employees, by the way. So let me point out some things very clearly. My special thanks, and I'm serious, goes to the employees of Deutsche Telekom for their commitment and for their hard work last year because it's them that they have really generated this big success.

So now we are back to the comedy really of a telekom AGM. There are members of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board. There are shareholders and the shareholders are like puppets on a string because shareholders' rights are trampled upon by Deutsche Telekom managers. My speech is one big question. And I hope I will get some answers in this dialogue with members of the Board. Mr. Hottges, your sales pitch at the start of every AGM is fascinating for me every year. You do a great job.

You are a sales genius a real professional. You're a natural -- when it comes to your marketing skills. That's a hard act to follow. Thank you very much for this. It deserves a round of applause.

And I don't think any representative from another tax company can keep up with that. Well, usually, I like to hand out red cards. But this time, it's a green card. And for you, Mr. [indiscernible], I still have yet another color.

Can I ask that you ask questions now. Did I miss here? Sorry. My hearing aid is not working. Mr. Oswald. Let's play the same game as last year then -- it was very interesting. What you told me after last year's event, but why don't you continue for now anyway?

You keep on interrupting me. And if at all, you need to speak more quietly, I don't understand your dialogue because I am from Bavaria.

But that's not a problem. I think we'll be able to communicate somehow and understand each other. So Mr. Hottges, like I said, I really like how you kick things off at the AGM. And yes, who else who's going to do that once you've left the company. I'm really worried if you'll be able to find somebody else. Maybe [ fine ] because I remember when he was at Deutsche Parkz, he would step up his remuneration five times a year as CEO.

Mr. Hottges, what I dislike is that after the COVID pandemic, you increased your remuneration by 50%, I then file a counter motion, which is on display at the peakest registration count. So these spikes in remuneration don't make sense to me. And so I do praise you when you deserve it, if you don't deserve it, but I also appraise you if you deserve such a rise in pay.

Can I ask you quite openly I mean this is the AGM of a global company. Is it -- well, is this just a major museum of bureaucracy with lots of optical fiber all around us.

I mean even in a small town with 16,000 people, we often see hybrid events. Why is it not possible for Telekom to also organize hybrid AGMs?

Hybrid AGMs are the only acceptable solution for a shareholder. For instance, last year, I also wanted to show up, but then I wasn't able to because I was ill, but then I would have been able to follow or attend the AGM online. So therefore, can I ask politely that you finally introduce hybrid AGMs. That would be modern communications.

So how do you organize the meetings of the Supervisory Board and the Board of Management -- in a hybrid fashion or differently. I don't mind, by the way, if you answer my questions straightaway. Mr. Hottges. So a lot of people out there are wondering why Telekom is investing billions in optical fiber only to see that Elon Musk is offering mobile coverage everywhere, be it at the Kilimanjaro or in my home via satellite, what's going to happen in 3 or 5 years from now when people no longer even need a line, a fixed line because they can use the Internet at much better cost on a mobile basis. And by then, we will have invested billions, money down the drain. So that can have a major negative impact on Telekoms business.

Maybe Telekom will cease to exist if Elon Musk offers Internet to everyone via satellite. Then again, you have a major advantage with the optical fiber because you can transfer a large amount of data, but then maybe Elon Musk will be able to do the same before long.

When do you think will Telekom be at the end of its [ weights ] here? Do you think you'll be able to really beat space -- more money is invested there in space. I would guess, trillions. That's the future. So it's optical fiber, something that will become obsolete before long. That's my question to you. And so now let's be honest here. Why is it that Telekom red tape is more complicated than within land revenue, why do we need approvals from different parties before we can send out a bulldozer to lay the next cable for a fiber line. Wouldn't it be better to use experienced staff instead, people who know how to solve problems rather than just using fancy PowerPoint slides and sending out the wrong people to do it. When will Telekom finally become a company that gets down to business rather than just performing endless tests.

Optical fiber. Let's talk about optical fiber plus or glasfaser plus. That's actually the name of that company. What went wrong in companies such as [indiscernible], the so-called snow white city. Construction projects were halted and all that under the magenta flag. Is this what progress at Telekom looks like today? I brought a couple of newspapers here, in the reports there and online, you can find pictures and videos of the construction site, you can see that people are really upset about it. And I also talked about it with Dr. Illek. He didn't even know about it and even sent them some information in writing. That's why I brought these newspaper articles here, and I've got more. Just so you know what's happening out there. But you don't know anything about it, do you, I think you actually need to go to some places yourself to see what things are like.

The biggest joke in Germany and of Germany -- sorry, in Germany and Telekom. And now let's talk about the empty content. Why is it that Telekom trying to lay new lines next to empty contents. Is this part of your sustainable management philosophy? Or is this what you would refer to as the network rollout of the future? I hope you've understood what I'm saying here, Mr. Hottges. So we have empty content he saying. And so you take our tranches right next to these empty conducts.

Yes, I think we've understood that. You have spent 14 minutes for talking. So please come to an end here. Please don't put me under pressure. Otherwise, I'll have to file yet another motion

Was there a comment from the audience?

Thanks anyway. So back to the empty content, that's a real problem, Mr. Hottges, you should look into that. It would certainly help you to save some money. So is this what you call sustainable corporate governance? Or is this the dual network rollout of the future. Look, the customers are waiting for the Internet. You are tearing up the roads to lay new cables, but then we have a lot of these empty contents that are not used. Even a lot of your employees are just shaking their heads because they don't understand what's going on.

So if you've been more farsighted you would have been able to lease out the empty contents to GlasfaserPlus. This could have saved you millions, even billions possibly. You would have sped up the network rollout, you would have gained more customers, and it would also have been better for the environment. And at the same time, you would have made a lot of money by using these empty contents. Why have you never done that? This is my question to you

Fiber lines via empty contents, that will be good. And then how about your construction sites? How is it possible that your construction partners had to be stopped in different regions because their work was simply a disaster. I occasionally send pictures to Mr. Bohle. I hope that she forwarded them to you, Dr. IIIek, and you Mr. Hottges.

For years and years, I've been sending her some of the newspaper reports. So who looks into that at Telekom? Who takes responsibility if underground, we only have pieces of cable. Do you think that quality is important at all? Or does it only matter to you how fast you can dig the next trench?

Can I ask that you come to a close, please? And you've been saying for the third time that this would mark the end of your comments.

I'll be done in a moment. But you keep on confusing me here. So when it comes to the empty contents, everything would have been much more cost efficient and faster if you had made use of these empty contents, and it would have been much better for your customers, too. We believe that costs could have been up to 80% lower if you had done all that, if you had used the empty contents and manholes more efficiently.

So the liabilities of Telekom amount to EUR 140 billion. Now think twice about that. That's so much money. So -- it will certainly make sense for you to save some money. But then you decided to work with this Australian company and -- well, then they took charge of things, and that's yet another reason why customers are leaving the company in large numbers. And now Mr. Hottges in Loa, and the city of Loa, there's something I wanted to show you, as I promised. I have been asked by representatives of Snow White City [ Loa ] to tell you this, to wind up my little speech here, you are granted the honorary doctorate for the fiber rollout in the city of Loa.

And I wanted to give you the certificate personally.

So this is the end of your comments. Thank you very much Mr. Oswald. Mr. [ Zalton ] is the next speaker. Zalton is the next speaker, please.

Dr. Wittig, Mr. Hottges. Dear members of the Supervisory Board, team members of the Board of Management dear co-shareholders. First of all, I would like to thank you very much for holding this event face-to-face. That shows good leadership. It stands for transparency, and there are a lot of other DAX companies that are not doing the same, unfortunately. Also I would like to thank you for offering warm meals. I criticized last year that, that was not the case, and it shows that you are considering the shareholders' feedback. And I would also like to thank your staff at the speakers' registration counter.

Last year, I criticized that the annual report wasn't available. This year various copies were available. So yes, they are T and we can count on them. And that brings me to my questions. I have several questions. I hope that I will be able to mention them all in 5 minutes. First of all the capital increase, we have talked about this before, so that, first of all, requires an anticipatory resolution. And now abroad, we've seen various capital increases in Spain in Holland and in England, Germany is not investing enough. And the Deutsche [ Acton ] Institute issued a statement recently according to which the funding, and I wasn't aware that there are different kinds of funding. Funding usually comes from Golden Sachs and other banks and then sometimes from Deutsche bank, but they only come in third or fourth.

So sometimes they're not even involved in that sort of thing. So my question is in connection with the capital increase, why is it that we don't have enough capital in the German market? And -- my question is, how can we improve things here? How can we make sure that more capital increases will be made possible for the shareholders in this country, too, which brings me to IT and service security.

What are you doing in the field of open cloud? That's been the talk of the town for a couple of weeks. Anthropic developed it. Mr. Steiner from Austria now went to one of the big providers there. And then quantum technology, is Telekom active in this field at all? There are two universities, one in Munich and one in [indiscernible] that are very active in this field. Have you done anything to work with them? Because there are 30,000 to 40,000 attacks per day on Telekom alone. And that shows that it's important to do something about it. And at McKinsey, a couple of weeks ago, we heard that an attack was launched. And all the McKinsey data was analyzed and they didn't even realize it. So that shows just how dangerous such attacks can be. And we should look into what quantum technology actually means. With quantum technology, you can detect errors in the system all over the place.

Then I have the question about early retirement for employees. How many employees have made use of early retirement auction in the last few years? And how will you deal with this going forward with this program for early retirement? I have several questions actually, what does the age pyramid look like among the IT staff and the gender structure of women versus men is dominated by males. I would be interested in hearing about that. And I have several questions. Was that again.

That's good. I'll stop there. And I would thank you for the opportunity here. Wish you all the best, to you and your staff. And we hope that the dividend will continue to rise because you have a lot of stock yourself, yourself on it. I wish you all the best and God bless you. God bless Telekom and the Board of management so that Telekom can continue to grow. .

Thank you, Mr. Zalton for sticking to the speaking time. Florian Erlock is next, and then we'll answer the questions. And then we'll have [indiscernible] and three additional persons.

My name is Florian Erlock. I'm a shareholder and CEO of the Blockchain platform in Europe. Last year, I couldn't take part in the Annual Shareholders Meeting because I had a business trip to China. And I have three topics that I wanted to address today. Louder. Is that better?

For me, there's three topics of importance. AI, Blockchain and Compliance. When possible, maybe you could provide me the answers in writing. I sent you them in advance in writing. And also in 2023 at the AGM where you answered my questions in writing, that's actually a good thing. So my question, what's the situation with our AI and Blockchain services in the group compared to total revenue as a ratio of total ratio in 2025 and also the KPIs in comparison with the previous year in 2025 because the share price thrives on expectations.

I think that's an important point. Second question is this is rather a statement of fact. I found an old AI article by you new opportunities in customer services through AI. And I took the liberty of looking at the LinkedIn or putting it on my LinkedIn profile because I think this could be used as a model for Telekom going forward to 2030. In my opinion, this supplier possesses a new AI technology called decoding.

And the cost of the data center is generic coding is what they do. And I think this is worth discussing Telekom, too. And in closing, I would also note aside from AI and Blockchain, those are the two big technologies of our day and also technologies that Deutsche Telekom should focus on in the next few years in order to generate sales and profit because there's big profit margins on new technologies, and that's what produces dividends.

And my last point, I don't want to stretch it too thin with my 5 minutes. Compliance, can you confirm that the Management Board is in full compliance with the corporate governance code. And I would be interested in hearing whether you include or exclude suppliers there because there's a legal notice of 107/22 that it still hasn't implemented. And I would be interested -- and so it's not compliant. And I'd be interested in hearing if they're still not compliant because when I read the corporate governance code, that would have an impact on that. And I would close with a quote of Einstein. If you can't trust somebody with the little things, then you can't trust them with the big things.

Thank you, Mr. Erlock. We'll answer your questions in writing, and that's an efficient way to do things. I found a video of myself in the Internet in Miami of my presentation three years ago. If you look at it closely, you'll see it has the same code as the official video. Then okay. Now this brings us to the answers to the questions and [indiscernible] Alexander onenberg and Sven Huling will be -- have the next questions. They're in the next block. .

So Mr. Oswald is going -- has submitted questions. I answered the question about successor planning already. And I'm convinced that we will find a very good successor too. And another question related to my remuneration at Deutsche Post. You said that my remuneration had been increased by 5x. I'll leave that without. I won't comment on that. There's significant fluctuations at Telekom and that depends on short- and long-term programs sometimes then, if it's also related to target achievement over a period of time if they meet all their targets, then their remuneration is much higher than just the fixed part. Mr. Oswald, why did Snow White change her WiFi password, you should know.

Because just using 7, she just used 7s to as a password, but so much for Snow White. Look at chats now. We have 250 male contacts, Mr. Oswald. And I have all of them here. And I know the build-out in lower or better than any other city in Germany. Thanks to you. We analyzed all of your questions. We know the background to ASCO, and we know about the properties that haven't been connected, but I don't want to go into such detail here at the AGM.

And also, I don't think it's relevant because of data privacy when you talk about things like this year. We have different views of build out. If we did it the way you would like Telekom would be bankrupt. We're very efficient in it. And I could give you a lot of references in the Internet where we document where we've made film clips how we secure quality and the build-out and make sure we don't have any empty pipelines where municipal have laid pipes like you might find in Spain.

And I don't think we should discuss this bilateral discussion about Lower here at the AGM. Rodrigo will attend to this and try to make sure that you get some traction there, but I don't think it's a topic for us here. Now turning to your questions. You mentioned hybrid versus in person AGMs. We deliberately decided on this in-person meeting because we want to have a personal exchange with our shareholders.

And of course, we could have an online event, and let us know if that's what you would like because the cost are -- if we get the message from enough of you that you want to be on the line fine. But so far, we've received the opposite message that you would like in-person meetings you compared our millions of investment in fiber compared to Elon Musk satellite solution. First of all, satellite can't replace mobile or mobile communications or fixed network.

And if you think about all the customers, the numbers of customers in these big terrestrial networks and then the capacity of satellites. And we would have an artificial bottleneck if we did everything through satellites. And besides that, the latency is much higher with satellites than with our terrestrial systems.

And capacity and the power of fiber is much greater than satellites and 99.9% of traffic goes through these fiber and mobile networks. And when you think, we should decide to move everything to satellite that don't belong to us that we can't influence and where other regulatory conditions apply.

That's why I'm saying it all the more important that we improve our 5G capability and fiber capability because that's where the future of telecom is. And also where in places like rural areas or national parks or in the mountains then will include satellite. Where we need it, will include satellite in our service range. Mr. Osvaldik, you talked about the future viability.

Now it's the same question. So I'll go to the next one. When will Telekom finally be a Telekom that acts and doesn't just analyze. And I'm sorry that we analyze so much. And we don't want to work in a hypothetical realm, we want to be doers. And we connect 2.5 million households with fiber each year and at lower cost now than before. So that's why I'm of the opinion that we are doers, and we aren't just sitting back and analyzing things.

And if we are bureaucratic, then that's what we're trying to move away from it. Part of our key culture is to cut the red tape, and we're self-critical in that endeavor. And I think that applies to all of us, too. We're -- that's what it takes to become more pragmatic as a company. You mentioned MagentaTV in comparison with Google, Mr. Werner. MagentaTV uses different clients.

And on our hardware, we use Android TV client, which then establishes the connection to MagentaTV. And this client still requires a Google account in order to use MagentaTV on Android. And it's also available via other clients and access to these clients is on your set-up box under the rubric of apps. For example, Amazon or Samsung, you can also use -- you can also link into MagentaTV through their apps. But then -- and if you do that, you don't need a Google account. But for us to be able to offer the Android TV platform in this infrastructure, which is used on all non-Apple devices, those are Androids, and then you'll have access to the Google client.

I know that it often leads to confusion among customers, but that's the software architecture out there that makes it possible to access services.

And then there is a question, what's the ethical attitude at Deutsche Telekom regarding AI.

That's a very important question. And to put it in no uncertain terms, we only want to really advocate and use AI where it supports people and protects people. Can AI perform -- or can it ever have control over decisions? No. That always remains in the hands of human beings. And we will not leave that ethical standard with the agent model either. There's even people -- human beings there that look at what the agent does and see if it's correct. And then if it is, then we move one step forward with automation. It's called human machine interface. We have very strict internal review procedures that all AI applications have to go through before they're put into actual use.

So we really analyze that, and it's an extremely complex system, but it supports people and it doesn't replace them in their roles. And we have special AI and security teams that are appointed to look at these things.

Without AI, though, we wouldn't be able to counteract all these attacks in the cyber space in real time. We need AI to protect our services, our networks, and they help our company to become better on the whole.

Mr. Werner, you asked about possible additional costs of parallel operations and the switch over from MagentaOne to MagentaTV and the cost of parallel operations for Germany alone would be more than EUR 10 million if we did ran these parallel to each other and that's why we decided to migrate the platform. We're doing this with our customers. It's a better platform. It's got higher quality and I hope that it doesn't cause any problems for our clients but you have to change software sometimes to further develop a service. And that's the software release that we've just had on our platform.

Mr. Salton, you talked about the role of our cloud services in IT. T-Cloud public used to be OTC Telekom Cloud is our own public cloud platform, which we operate in high-security European computer centers. It's in line with all regulations and compliant and has received all the necessary attestations from the federal agency for security.

And we tested with a holistic concept for security in terms and we also look at the data privacy protection in an encapsuled environment and go through numerous security tests. So Deutsche Telekom is further developing this and the cloud to and 2,000 cybersecurity specialists are working now at Telekom -- 2,400 rather, finding cloud and security solutions to differentiate our offer from the competition.

Open Cloud or T-Cloud Public, as we call it now, is our own European security cloud. It's a central component of our cybersecurity strategy and independence strategy, or sovereignty strategy.

Mr. Werner, you talked about the customer experience with the switch over to MagentaTV. I've already answered that question. And if you need more information, just get in touch with us, and we'll find somebody who can help you with the switch over to make sure you can get through it.

You talked about our migration targets -- our climate targets rather. These have been agreed upon for the entire group. The climate transition plan includes an ambition 2040. That's Scope 3, we're talking about -- and with the American and the American business is included in that, and we report on our progress and status every year. You talked about the operating interface of MagentaTV and the program guide.

I think it's great, but I'm just one user, but our other customers are highly satisfied with this, too. There are some critical voices, and we rely on their feedback to improve. And we reported on promoters earlier, and it's -- their satisfaction with Magenta is very high.

You talked about the media receiver for MagentaTV and experience with users with MagentaTV right at the present, the Connect test has been given a mark of excellent, and we completed that test. No TV service in Germany is rated that high. In the development of the new platform, we surveyed users and also took into account their feedback during the development.

Mr. Werner, you talked about the role of Google at MagentaTV, I already answered that. By the way, no customer data is shared with Google only because they dial -- because you dial in with the Google account doesn't mean that your data is automatically sent to Google. That's not part of this service.

Mr. Werner, you are also talking about possible future meetings between the U.S. President and managers of Deutsche Telekom. Everything that we would say today would be mere speculation. We did not have anything to do with the dinner you talked about. I personally did have never met the American President and regarding future meetings, I can't speculate on this. This depends on what is coming. But at present, there are no plans.

ESG criteria. Question by Mr. [ Dimier ] Excluded from the U.S. business and it's not part of the compensation system, special circumstances in the United States, such as rural 5G rollout. What happens after natural disasters are not shown. So apparently, Deutsche Telekom wants to just get the profits without doing anything for sustainability. One, how did you take such path towards the U.S. business. This was what [ Mr. Dimier ] said, the climate goals of Deutsche Telekom apply worldwide also for the United States and this means that we want to achieve our climate goals and this is also reflected in our compensation each manager or this company is partly paid on the basis whether we are sustainable, and this is not happening for all the companies, especially not for all German companies, but for us, it's normal.

These goals attained well, regarding the 2 ecological targets in our compensation. We are excluding the United States at present. The aim of the incentivization is always steering the company on the basis of all the sustainable dimensions, there should never be an incentivation where you have way you do not take into account sustainable goals or make economic goals more important.

It would be bad for us and you can also see this in our compensation report on Page 40. You partly quoted from this. There are structural differences of the U.S. business because it differs from the business models in Europe and in Germany. But I would wish that we could more integrate the U.S. into the KPIs and the compensation. But of course, in the U.S., we also have to agree things we do with the other directors on our Board.

Ban on smartphones in schools. This is, of course, a very difficult discussion that we have on the basis of society. And I think it's good that we have this discussion and it's important to involve experts. We do support these experts also through our foundation. And we also want to make sure that we support the media competencies among students and we want to act against hatred in the web.

The debate, the discussion in society and the experts discussions, first need to take place. We will not blame people or point fingers. Otherwise, people would say we are partial anyway. So we leave it to politics and the experts to come up with view. I have my personal view on this, but this is true for everybody. We do not expect any declines in sales, perhaps less data might be used but we do not see any risks for our revenues.

This brings me to Mr. Oswald's question why we sometimes have new lines, although we already have empty cable ducts. We use these empty cable ducts if they are -- if they can be used if it makes sense, but this is definitely part of our rollout methodology and we are doing this thousands of times in Germany. I could give you a long list but it's not always possible because sometimes the cable ducts are too short or the stretches are too short or we have too many things in them already.

But this is what I leave to my technicians to find the right answers because if the boss meddles into the affairs of experts, it won't get better. And this leads me to the meetings between the Management Board and the Supervisory Board, well, you should just experience some, well, we normally have face-to-face meetings. The management Board meets on Tuesdays almost every day.

So we have intensive discussions. And this is unusual for many companies. We really deal with all the individual items on the agenda and projects. Some of these meetings are also virtual. People can dial in from wherever they are. Yesterday, for example, Abolhassan was with the customer, he couldn't be there all the time and he dialed in when he was available. And I do not want to talk on behalf of the Supervisory Board.

Over to you. Yes, the Supervisory Board also makes it possible for people to participate virtually. This is also part of our articles of association but we are in favor of a face-to-face meeting here. We don't want to have a hybrid meeting because it would increase complexity. So we will also probably plan to have a face-to-face meeting next year.

I already answered the question, the meeting between Zuckerberg, Cook and Altman, these were tech companies, no telecommunications companies were involved, but I'm not sure about all the details. I can tell you, however, that we were not present. Mike Sievert was not invited and did not participate. This brings me to the soccer rights.

[indiscernible] you talked about the Football World Cup and the payments necessary for this. For the German market, we've got the media rights for a total of 272 matches, the Men 2026, Women 2027, EU 2025 and 2027. So it's not only the football World Cup of Men, but it also includes others, and we've got a good reach, and this helps us promote MagentaTV.

Yesterday was a good day for us because we are happy that the Turks are now also qualified and not only because we've got 400 million Turkish people living in our country because all the games are exclusive to MagentaTV and this means that probably everybody will come to us in order to watch these games. And if you have MagentaTV yourself, then we hope that they will use our connectivity because we see people who use our TV products are also more loyal regarding the other products, and this is exactly our business model to have reliable and good customer service.

And we sublicensed some of the World Cup rights to the German broadcasting channels, ARD and ZDF, the German matches have to be shown on public TV and we received a 3-digit million figure, including the advertising plus the new customers who will get for MagentaTV, we assume right now that the investment, which was roughly EUR 200 million will turn out to be a profitable investment for us and that we will have a financial success.

You also asked about sponsoring and the distribution of sponsoring costs. Well, if the customers see that we are also sponsoring sports, they are more loyal and they give us a higher Net Promoter Score than other customers. It's just felt element, which is important for the assessment received from our customers. Therefore, it's necessary.

In 2025, we spent EUR 368 million for sports sponsoring for donations, roughly EUR 27 million. And in 2024, it was EUR 314 million and for sponsoring EUR 33 million, respectively. And it's important for us that it always is in line with our values. We know we never only focus on one sports, Bayern Munich in soccer, but we also do it for other sports and for local initiatives. For example, the Telekom baskets for all people living in Bonn, we just extended the contract.

Mr. Osvaldik, another question on the quality assurance in civil engineering, I already comprehensively answered this question and I will ask my team to send you video material and expert material so that you see what we are doing. And Mr. Diehl will do this personally because you also need something to do.

Mr. Elek, do you still have questions?

Yes, one. I got a question by Mr. Zaltan. Based on our top 8 regarding the increase of the authorized capital ask why do we have more capital increases in Germany, why don't we have more capital increases. This is always adequate means, but we also have to be aware that the earnings per share is going down then. We now want to have this item on the agenda in order to have the flexibility for our corporate financing in the future to also do a capital increase but we first of all, want to finance our investments from our free cash flow.

And this is the last way out. This is a possibility, but this is not a usual financing tool for us. And this leads us to the next round of questions.

First of all, [indiscernible].

I'm sorry, this was not part of a program. This was not intentional.

Sorry Members of the Board of Management, Members of the Supervisory Board, ladies and gentlemen. I will try to be brief and I do not want to destroy this glass, let me put it here. I will try to be brief and to the point, my name is [indiscernible]. And I have 3 hats on. First, I represent my family office. We have shares in companies, participations in companies. And I am also the Chair of Corrosion Protection developer in Germany, a globally leading company. And the third one, I have an NGO in Tanzania in Africa, focusing on the economic and scientific cooperation between universities and companies from Germany and Tanzania.

Now I have 3, I hope, exciting questions for you as a person knowing about Business Administration, I know that we've got 2 main leaders in order to optimize profits, either we can reduce costs and increase revenues or both. And now talking about reducing costs. Here, I would like to know whether there is a statistical analysis regarding the standstill of your operations. Here, I'm mainly talking about towers, although we already learned during the AGM that most of the towers were outsourced to subsidiaries or leased.

Operations don't -- are not utilized. This means that there is no revenues coming from these assets to the company. And here, I would like to know especially what is happening if you've got corrosion in the electrical contacts for the towers, for example, especially in the neighborhood of the coasts on islands in hot climate, United States, Florida or 5G network of offshore wind energy converters, whether you've got unplanned problems with your assets, standstills of the assets? And if so, then I would like to perhaps also help the engineers and show some possible solutions how to handle such problems.

The next exciting question, new markets to increase your revenues. I personally spend as much time as possible in Tanzania. Tanzania, as all the countries in Africa, if statistics are right, we will see that the population will double in the next 25 years. And this is an enormous amount of people. As an optimist, I do see huge opportunities in these markets. Perhaps not even the Asian companies see them, and we should not leave them to the Asian companies. There are huge opportunities also for European companies. The prices, in my opinion, the prices for telecommunications services are not very low. I can see what I pay for my prepaid cards there. What I also saw in Tanzania is another very interesting business model of telecommunications companies that they offer financial services. So I can have a credit on my smartphone, and I cannot only use this credit for making phone calls, but I can use it to pay in a restaurant, to pay in a car workshop, I can pay my electricity bill. So it's not a replacement of a bank account, but it's an addition. And the telecommunications service provider will earn a certain fee for each transaction. And then the question is, even if financial services in Europe are more strongly regulated, whether this might not also be a good possibility for you to generate additional business.

I see the time is flying. A lot was said about the copper networks. One day, when we have full coverage of fiber, these copper lines might be obsolete. And so I came up with the following question. Is it profitable to take out the underground copper cables. Copper prices are high. There is a lack of supplies. So might it be possible in a few years that you can have extraordinary profits that will also help the share price by selling this copper.

Now I wish all the participants of this AGM how exciting and constructive day, and I would like to thank you for your attention. Thank you very much.

Then the next speaker is Mr. Yazine Bosco and then we have Henrik Alexander Zonenberg. Mr. Bosco first. Mr. Yazine Bosco, are you still here? Currently, this is not the case. So now I would like to ask Mr. Henrik Alexander Zonenberg and then after him, Mr. [indiscernible] and perhaps [indiscernible] close to the stage already. But first Mr. Zonenberg please.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for this personal invitation to this AGM. Unfortunately, this is not happening for many of the German DAX companies. So a question to Mr. Appel, why don't you have personal meeting for RWE. Statistically speaking, the mobile communications network is better in Albania than in Germany. I went there. I saw it myself. I live in Bergesglatbach, and I asked your colleagues outside why we don't have such a good connection. The person said it's probably due to the mountains and the forests, and it hopefully works in the future. Mrs. [indiscernible] in her State of the Union address in 2005 said that the communications network has to be expanded, but we are not yet well connected. And I would like to know from you when you will have a mobile connection everywhere in Germany. Based on the information by a major German newspaper, AI is the second biggest risk for small- and medium-sized enterprises at present. The largest risks are hacker attacks. How do you want to make sure that this changes in the future.

The third sale of T share in Germany showed a share price of more than EUR 60. When do you think will we be back at this share price.

In the past, you had a very nice advertising figure or [indiscernible] was when you were privatized. Why don't you use it any longer? And how much did you have to pay for the copyright. So it didn't even take me 2 minutes to ask my questions.

I think it's good to restrict the time. I don't want to hear the CV of everybody. Have a good time, bless you and bye-bye.

Thank you very much for your very brief intervention. Let me ask again whether Mr. [indiscernible] is back in the room, is here. If this is not the case, we will now listen to Sven Huling and then to Mr. [indiscernible].

Thank you very much, Mr. Appel for giving me the floor and for listening to me. I will be brief. Well, it's a pity that Mr. Hottges is not here. I first have to tell you a secret. Well, I tried to have a nice outfit today. First of all, everything is clear. You said that if there are any problems, then we should address your employees? I did. There was something that made me very sad. You blocked my mobile phone number on the shareholders' hotline. And there was a member of staff who said that I have to talk to an AI and she blocked my number. And ever since I was not able to reach you any longer, and I'm very disappointed because as a shareholder, I have the right to call you directly, and I wanted to do this. It's a pity that Mr. Hottges is not here. I hope that he can see me, he can hear me. But now I would like to tell you a secret.

I got a contract from Paramount Pictures. So I was taken on by Paramount Pictures. I have to remove my shirt and I'm extremely proud of this. Mr. Hottges got this, and I hope that you will all give him an applause. He is now part of Paramount.

You can see clouds. This is not interesting any longer. You can use as much electricity as you want. First of all, Mr. [indiscernible] you answered all the questions. You don't have to ask any question to me, I have a request to you. I was in 5 shows from in all the different broadcasting stations. Also, we've done Rap, I produced RapTV and I would be happy if you gave me a Telekom t-shirt, perhaps 2 with a T on it.

Mr. Hottges, you were taken on by Mercedes and now I have to wish do a break. This is also important for Deutsche Telekom. I now ask you very politely. I'm not watching the time, but this is really important. I waited for a long time. I want to do a reset with Deutsche Telekom. I've got the Mercedes share for as a gift and I had to hand it over to Paramount and then I had to do a 24-hour reset, it's called sound of the machines.

So we keep it quiet for 1 day and the next day, it starts again and then you got your entire transfer. And I want to do the same thing with Deutsche Telekom. The problem, however, is I got some future shares and the future is that I am growing older with you, but that's not too bad. So if you give me one share for free, I can do a reset with you, and this means that there is an end date. Paramount and Warner Bros. How do you call it, we know they have archives. There is a 70-millimeter archive for the 70 millimeters films. There is a music archive and there is archive for logos.

On the 17th of November, so there is end date, if you do not want to do the reset with me, Mr. Hottges, could you please listen to me? This is very important. There is an end date, the 17th of November 2029. So if the Mercedes boss wants to do it with me, we'll do a reset. You will give me a share. I hand it over to Paramount and then you will get your transfer. And I ask you for something very nice. I do not want to talk for too long because everything has been said already, everything is clear.

I'm extremely said that you switched off my mobile phone. There was a lady on the phone and she said that I ask to talk to an AI. Now let us talk about AI. Ever since I talk to AI, AI told me that Mr. Hottges will give me an HD+ card for free or one waipu stick because I feel the media library. This is what the AI said. If you have a generous heart, I would be happy if you gave me an HD+ card, which I put into the relevant lot so that I have access to Sky and all these stations for free.

And then I do not want to burden you for too long. Well, I really love you daily, but I also feel cheated by you because these are future shares. And well, you are no longer trendy here because I know about bans on smartphones and I see this in a critical light. I think this is really a pity with the ban on smartphones because it seems to be spreading.

Now I've got 3 sentences, Mr. Hottges. As you are future company. I have the right. I would like to be in the quiz champion with Johannes B. Kerner when [ Buly ] is there or now the broadcasting station. I want to sit there with a Telekom T-shirt, I want to be part and then I will also be in your media library. I'm not doing it for the people. I do it for fun because I have to get away from cigarettes because we'll have a cigarette ban starting on the 1st of March. So if you have the videos on which and people are smoking, so you have to mark the videos that there is smoking.

I will be finished soon Mr. Plum. I know that your customers in [indiscernible] consume baking soda. And as you have contacts to Schwarz group and looking for somebody, you don't have to give it to me for free but I'm looking for one of the baking soda. And this is your customer and then there is a Nelson Mandela Square in Bremen. This is 2 football fields large area. And your customers, our customers at some point in time will no longer be there and people -- and the influence in Bremen, and I don't like it and I would be happy if you gave a contact to [indiscernible], for example, because, yes, baking soda is very popular. It's not quality. It's not like Dr. [indiscernible], but it's just cheap product.

And finally, the last sentence, and this is very important to me, there is a share, which will break some companies necks. If I have the right, if I feel that these companies are not well and please also pass the message to the boss of Mercedes. I hope that you all put your money together and give me a lind share, only if I get a lind share, I can do a reset with them as well, and then I will also transfer it to Paramount.

Just very briefly. Now please come to your close.

Yes, yes, I will. Mr. Hottges, could you please listen to me one more second. You interrupted me. Well, the reset is as follows. I have to be given the share for free, and then I can do the reset, and I would like to do this and the share is at risk. The chocolate will be stolen and the share price will go down. So if you want to give me a share, I will help them. I am ready. So now you've got my approval. There will be another shareholders' meeting at Mercedes. I will also be there. CO2 carbon emissions, you don't care s***, I don't care s*** no, it's about your future. And if you give me a share for free, I will help people.

This is an important topic. And if you were to give me a T-shirt for the TV shows, I would be absolutely happy and also an apology for blocking my phone because otherwise, I could have called Mr. Plum about this transfer and I couldn't do so, but I did it now.

Yes, I am. And I talked for 5 minutes and I hope you accept all the information. We will see each other next week in the stream and say, the best to all of. I'm ready now.

So Mr. Eisman is the next speaker on the list. So I just got a little heavier. So we have an anniversary today this is my 31st AGM and the 30th ordinary AGM. So one was extraordinary. So that was in Hanover at the time in 2009. There were actually 2 AGMs in that year, 1 ordinary and the other extraordinary. Now let's come to my questions.

So for 28 years now, we've been in a competition. And the competent authorities, regulators, the Federal Network Agency forced us to actually pass through the services, Mr. [ Ricke ], CEO at the time said that the loss was EUR 280 million.

Mr. Obermann confirmed this that this was a distortion of the competition. And that was then resolved. But now we have Internet telephony. And I'd be interested in one thing, whether partners are just too lazy to invest in their own networks. Now if you go into the web from Bonn and you want to access an Internet site in Berlin. This sometimes routed through Frankfurt or Hanover or Hamburg when it goes abroad, it can go through different networks. I mean this does not involve any additional costs.

But if a competitor is too lazy to invest in their own networks, they can just route their calls through Deutsche Telekom. I'd be interested in whether this is really the case. These routing charges where Deutsche Telekom really has to pay for. The question is whether that's a real problem for you. That's true. Are there any means you have to stop this.

And I have a question on artificial intelligence as well. There are some fears I know. But I think that Deutsche Telekom has some safeguards here. Let me give you an example for a particular reason, I asked Meta AI, whether it can change a EUR 50 bill because 40 years ago, a smart guy, but it was actually fraud, actually produced EUR 55 German mark bill. And of course, that ended up at the police. So I asked Meta's AI, whether it could change a EUR 55 -- 55 German mark bill. And the answer was, there's no problem. You can exchange your 55 German mark's bill at Deutsche Bank branches. There was also some other occasions when the AI came up with very weird responses. And so my fear was that AI is really vulnerable and the originally good idea of using AI can run into serious trouble. But based on experience, I guess, you have safeguards against such errors.

As Google says that there might be errors in answers that are provided by AI, but I'm pretty confident that Deutsche Telekom has the safeguards like business cloud that include highly sensitive business data. So there are really I'm sure stringent security requirements.

That's why I'm asking this question, whether that's really true. So that others who share my fear that they can be reassured that Deutsche Telekom's top priority is really security. I assume that Mr. Hottges is going to confirm this that security is their top priority. So let me just have a drink of water and then I will finish. It's important to drink enough even if you are not thirsty because otherwise, you get a little oozy. Thank you.

So last question to find out whether Mr. [indiscernible] is here. It's not the case. So we'll move on to the next round of answers. And after the round of answers, Mr. Klenke, [indiscernible] on the speaker's list. But now a round of answers, let me take a first question that Mr. Ella raised on Corporate Governance code.

Today, it was confirmed that the Board of Management and Supervisory Board are in full compliance with the German corporate governance code. Does this include your suppliers? Because as far as I know, there is one supplier where this is not fully the case. Do you think that the supplier is compliant.

Mr. Ella, you were mentioning the conformity statement of Deutsche Telekom and our suppliers. We are following the recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code. On December 30 in 2025, we issued this conformity statement. We still think that we are compliant with the code because after our review, we fully comply with the requirement with the exception mentioned. So we only cooperate with suppliers that are committed to fight corruption in any form. What's crucial is that we fulfill the requirements of the corporate German government code at all levels and we make sure that none of our suppliers violates any of the principles.

Now you also asked the question why RWE still organizing a virtual AGM. I mean I'm sitting here as the Chair of Deutsche Telekom's AGM. So I would be happy to answer that question when I attend RWE's AGM. Mr. Zaltan asked about our engagement with Quantum technology and cooperation with universities.

Yes, when it comes to Quantum technologies, we are active and quantum communication is one of our priorities, encryption and quantum-enabled fiber network. These are the issues that we are engaged with.

In 2023, we set up our own quantum lab in Berlin, and we also have a wonderful patent on quantum communication. And you can look this up on the Internet. We also cooperate with important universities when it comes to quantum technologies, the TU in Berlin and the TU in Dresden University of [indiscernible]. We also have a cooperation on quantum technology. So we are quite active there. And when it comes to encrypting networks and data, you already have to make the necessary preparations now to enable quantum technologies. This brings me to [indiscernible] question about Financial Services in Tanzania as a new business model.

We are not going to move into any new territories. We're not expanding into Africa, South America or China. We're staying where we are, to the left and to the right of the Atlantic Ocean. Of course, we are reviewing what we can do more in terms of financial services. We have payzy financial service in Greece, is a very simple payment service and we're thinking about introducing something similar in other European countries.

What's important to us are the Magenta advantages. In the app, maybe you're not aware of this. There is a Magenta advantage or benefits. So you will get this benefit like discounts -- you don't have to do anything else. But if you're a Magenta customer, we'll give you some benefits through the app.

Well, I think I answered that on the Snow White town. You asked about the gender structure and age structure in terms of our IT staff in Telekom. IT, our internal IT service provider, 74% of the staff are male, 26% are female, age distribution, up to 30 years, 19%; from 30 to 50 years, 45%; and above 50, 36%. So that's a healthy mix, I think. Mr. Zaltan you talk about our preretirement offers.

And we have 2 tools here. Partial retirement and active retirement. And this program grew from 630 that is mostly former civil servants that made use of this program. It's a total of 4,832 people who made use of this program, active retirement. The deadline for this program is December 31, 2026. Whether this will be extended is still not clear, so we cannot really make any statement on whether this program will be continued.

So the federal government or the federal parliament will have to decide this. Partial retirement is the second tool in 2,086 and 2,440. So that's sum total 11,492 that have signed up for this program, partial retirement will continue to be an important tool for us to manage the transition from employment to retirement.

Mr. Sonnenberg, you talked about our -- the figure of Pink Panther that we used to advertising in the '90s, Paul Panther was a highly esteemed advertising partner for Deutsche Telekom in the 1990s. Unfortunately, the Panthers fur did not match our color code. So we actually saved on some license fees that were in these 6 digits.

But we're happy that Paul Panther still works as a testimonial currently for insulation material. But some of these insulation materials made of fiber optics. So here, Paul Panther can also make a contribution from his telecom past to this industry. So this is a wonderful AI answer, isn't it? But let's move on.

Mr. Ella, you talked about revenue and performances when it comes to AI and blockchain and the importance of this revenue for '25 and beyond.

Now for AI, we don't identify separate revenue figures, but we should change that. But AI is a firm part of our EUR 17 billion investments that we make and it cuts across all our projects. So these are just German and European but it also includes American projects. Blockchain figures are not separately identified currently. Blockchain does not have -- the kind of momentum in our company or generally in the industry, as was first believed, it's not that relevant for us. I know it has certain strengths, but it's not yet commercially viable. AI is a value driver, but it's not a separate part of our revenue. So we can't give you any figures for 2025 or any specific targets for 2030.

But for all investors, later this year, we will have a small Capital Market Day, where we will provide explicit information on our AI projects and use cases, and we will also give you more information on our ethical standards. And our small private shareholders can also participate online. Then nationwide mobile services. I mean we're building more than our competitors always. I can see that in the figures, you can follow this up in the press, in the media more than 99% of the surface area of Germany now is supplied with our services and LTE 92% and 90% of the territory of Germany, 5G is available.

Sorry, this is not a correct answer. I'd like to hand this back because this is not a correct answer. 92% 5G -- 99.3% that's the correct figure. So I would like to withdraw that answer. We need to work on it. We need to correct this. So let's take our time to correct this. And I will hand over to Christian now.

I have one question to deal with. Mr. Sonnenberg's question. We had EUR 60 for the third -- when we issued the shares for the third time. I can't tell you when we will go back up to EUR 60, the capital market will decide that. We are now at EUR 30. And in 2002, we were at EUR 60. And I mean, we are trading now at a ratio of 15%, which is the earnings and share price ratio. So if you project this, we are talking about smaller single-digit number of years when we should be back at 60%. But of course, the capital market will decide that at what price, our share will be traded.

So that brings us to the next round of questions. Christian Wang first, then Klaus Luma, Mr. Klein and Mr. Oliver Luka. Mr. Wang, please.

I'll try to be brief. But I'll try to bring up all the questions I have. No. I mean the calculation you just gave us, that was pretax, right? Regarding the share price. But anyway, I've got 3 things that I wanted to raise here. I come from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. I'm sure that AI can do a lot, but people can do more than AI. So let me start with the topic of appreciation. And the appreciation always starts with praise. All that means is if you invite people who have done a lot for Telekom, then you do more than you think because the appreciation that you show to your employees comes back 100 times. I can assure you that.

So it's a good idea to always invite honorary guests, so to speak. I would like to talk about the capital increase and the higher dividend and the share buyback.

I see a connection here. If you increase the dividend and at the same time, buy back shares and increase the capital, then basically, you're doing everything twice. And -- or is that including taxes or not? I mean, why would you do it? Why would you increase capital and then buy back shares? I think that is a contradiction. I think it would be good if at the next AGM, you offered your shareholders to grant individual discharge to the members of the Board of Management instead of overall discharge to the Board. And I would like to come back to what you said about NVIDIA and SAP and other companies that you are working together with. And these are big players, just like you are.

I do hope, though, that you know that working with Elon Musk may mean playing with fire. Just think of how dependent Ukraine is on Starlink. I mean, the Ukrainians will be long dead without that system. And yes, that's playing with fire. And I think you need to be cautious. Sorry, I'm a bit nervous here. Third thing I wanted to say, maybe not the last thing, is this, sports. Women, except for football, there are -- well, there are lots of other types of sports that are not quite so popular as football where Germany is active, but where women do not play such a strong role.

And I am convinced that telecom -- it will be good for Telekom to act as a sponsor and not just for something like the Olympic Games. And of course, it would be nice if Telecom could help Germany get the Olympic games. But the question is, until then, what can you do to promote women's sport? For instance, Volleyball for women. In Sweden, for instance, the women's volleyball team have won all the championships since the mid-1990s, but nobody knows it. So what could you possibly do as a company to promote women's sports, maybe handball, basketball, -- there are so many options where the male version of the sport is extremely prominent, but the same doesn't hold true for the women's equivalent.

I forgot to mention -- there's something I wanted to say about carbon emissions. What's your target by 2030? Do you want to be carbon neutral by 2030? Right. And regarding your ROCE goal, can you also give us a specific ROCE target to be achieved by 2030? Or would that be too far away, in the context of carbon neutrality. So do you know what your carbon return, so to speak, will be by 2030? What else? There was AI, I already talked about that. Yes, there's one last thing. People are the most important thing, not AI, and you know it. And if you praise a person, then that has a much stronger effect than criticizing people. And I think, yes, we've heard too much criticism for everyone who has come here today. So that's it from my side. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Rink. The next speaker is Klaus Luma, followed by Niels Klein. Mr. Luma.

Klaus Luma, small shareholder from Thuringia. Ladies and gentlemen, I wanted to talk about 7 items at this shareholders' meeting. First of all, are there any news about sports sponsoring? I want to refer to the last time I asked a question about this. Secondly, the British Telecom Group, are there any plans to increase your stake? Is Deutsche Telekom represented on its Supervisory Board? Thirdly, the fixed network telephone booths. Is there a strategy for that? I think it no longer works. Number four, satellites of Deutsche Telekom AG. Is a big player from the Netherlands involved here? Then the T-Labs in Berlin, that's #5. That was great news.

Number six, the T-Cloud and sovereignty. I think that German SMEs are not aware of these products. Maybe you could advertise them more. Number seven, I believe that an AI factory in London, United Kingdom, would make a lot of sense. Maybe not next year, could also be sometime in the future. Number eight, would it be possible to use AI to protect sensitive information and software systems?

Thank you very much, Mr. Luma, for these very precise questions. The next speaker is Niels Klein, followed by Oliver Lukamp. So the next speaker is Nies Klein.

Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, my name is Niels Klein, and I am here as a municipal politician from the city of Bonn here today. Now Telekom with more than 70,000 employees is still a big player on the German labor market. However, this goes hand-in-hand with a big responsibility. In his speech, Mr. Hottges committed himself to Germany as a place to do business. Now does that mean that you feel also just as committed to your employees? And with a view to the upcoming wage talks, we've heard that jobs have to be transferred abroad unless the overall framework conditions in Germany improve. This could be interpreted as a threat.

My question is this. Will the decisions that are being taken in Berlin ultimately go at the expense of your employees? The next question is, how can you safeguard digital sovereignty given the current geopolitical situation? And how would that even be possible if you keep on shifting jobs to, say, India? And I would also like to remind you of St. Petersburg, where teams were working on critical infrastructure before the war. But then after the war had started, they had to leave the country overnight.

Thank you very much, Mr. Klein. The next speaker is Mr. Lukamp. Barbara Grimberg is the next speaker. Are you here? We brought you forward because Mr. Lukamp wasn't available yet.

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Barbara Grimberg. I studied economic science, and I actually took my PhD there. Some of the answers given by Mr. Hottges do not quite make a lot of sense. He said that shareholders should say what they think and then Telekom would do that. Well, unfortunately, that's not true because I have requested a printed annual report several times, and it still isn't available. On the other hand, Mr. Hottges said that there's too much auditing, too much testing, et cetera, et cetera. Oh, there is one. Oh, there is a printed report. Okay. Okay. So I withdraw this very criticism. Thank you very much for that. But let me continue.

I've got more negative things to mention. On the one hand, you're saying that you want women to be role models and that you want to have more women in managerial positions, et cetera. And I applied, I think, in 2002, 2003 for a post on the Supervisory Board for the first time. And nobody ever even talked to me about it. And I think it's questionable in the context of AI that you are using AI systems to answer questions. So can I ask the AI system to let me know why nobody ever contacted me about my applications, even though I do qualify for the job and despite my commitment.

You said that you have to be committed, you have to be motivated, you have to be skilled. I offer all that, but still, I haven't heard from you at all. And then Mr. Hottges also introduced himself by way of a video. I didn't quite like that. Why is it that he wasn't able to attend today's meeting in person? What's more? I think it is quite cheeky that the salary of the Board members increases from EUR 100,000 to EUR 115,000. That's an 11% rise. And your employees have to fight for a 4% or 6% rise, even though you keep on saying that they are the real pros here. And then the shareholders. The shareholders only have a once-in-a-year opportunity to discuss things with you as part of a dialogue. And 4 hours is not a long time.

So there is a lack of transparency. While you said that you want to improve transparency and that you're already making things very transparent, that is not really the case when you look at it. You mentioned the number of households connected to the fiber network. How many contracts, however, have been concluded with the customers for our fiber line? And over the past 4 years, I haven't had -- I lost my telephone connection for a couple of weeks, and nobody was able to sort things out before, well, they figured out it must have been a problem, a technical problem. Well, then there is Mr. [indiscernible], a new Supervisory Board member, and he does speak German because he is German, but he lives in Seattle. So I wonder that is very far away from here. Will he be paid a second flat?

Yes. And then you talked about rejuvenating the Supervisory Board. Well, you could have done that 24 years ago when I applied for the job. Then we have the female member of the Supervisory Board, Mrs. [indiscernible]. She's not here today. Why? Is she already on Easter holiday with her kids? And then I discovered today that in the city of Bochum in a tram, there was some advertising on the fiber rollout. And then we have the same with the beer mat that you distributed here. So how much did all this advertising cost to print it? And then you showed us that trailer of the data center in Munich, where we saw that the ventilators were extremely noisy, 115 decibels. So how much money are you spending on cooling?

So you're using electricity for your computing power, but apparently, you're also using it to cool all these systems. How many staff do you have in this data center? And how do you protect their hearing? Then you said that you want to discontinue or basically switch off copper lines by 2030. Is that still the plan? And then you talked about digital twins and testing things in a digital fashion. Well, that's nothing new. That actually started roughly 20 years ago when the Internet was launched. Back then, it was referred to as a mockup kind of simulation.

What classical data centers do you have? And what services do you offer with these data centers? And then you mentioned your data center in Munich, and you said that cooling is ascertained through the ice pack and ice cream. But how is that possible during summer? Then you talked about the use of satellites in the future. how many of these satellites will you own in future? And in the same context of satellites, I am surprised that you are not even talking to German satellite manufacturers. For instance, OHB, they are based in Bremen. They are building satellites both for their own company and also on behalf of others, for instance, for Airbus.

And then you did not even mention the Rocket Factory, which is also based in Bavaria, I think Augsburg or Nuremberg. And they are also building ramps for the rockets for their own purposes. And they also work together with leading manufacturers from the U.K., from Wales and Scotland. And how about Kongsberg? They are also very active in this field. Then on the other hand, you restricted speaking time. That's always when I sign up. That's when you keep on cutting speaking time short. And I don't think that's a very nice thing to do.

Then we've heard that you were paid EUR 11.2 million as the CEO. So that's roughly EUR 1 million salary per month. I think that's a bit much. Then the Supervisory Board said, okay, well, that was a self-assessment, and he thinks that this salary is adequate. And then, I mean, if you consider that 30% of the Telekom shares are still held by the government, you are actually a civil servant. You are paid the same salary as a Minister and State Secretary. But ultimately, your activity is worth 5x what a comparable Minister would be paid.

Then I would like to thank you for the good lunch that we've been offered here today. Next topic is, to what extent are you using Indian services for IT, programming, et cetera? Next question is mobile coverage -- no, sorry, coverage of the fiber rollout in the city of Bochum. Are you going to switch off the copper network there? I hope not. Why did you not follow the proposals that I have made since 2002 regarding a salary reform. After all, Deutsche Telekom used to be part of Deutsche Post because before these 2 companies were separated. And back then, new structures for remuneration were introduced as well.

This should be based on certain factors such as pension insurance, then unemployment benefit, then the health insurance that was EUR 8,000, EUR 8,000 and EUR 6,000 roughly, respectively. And that would cover pretty much everything. And then you can also pay a fixed salary of EUR 1 million or so plus a fee because considering all the things you do, you should bear in mind that it's all about making profit so that you can then reinvest part of that profit. And I've been saying this for 20 years, then maybe you could use 1/4 of the profit for dividends for the shareholders, another 1/4 for the wages and salaries as a bonus, but for everyone, top down, then the next quarter for repairs and research and the last quarter to cover any possible risks because bear in mind, you keep on talking about your responsibility, but a performance bonus of EUR 1 million, that's about the same salary that is paid to 17 skilled labor.

And you always talk about your responsibility, but others bear even more responsibility. A bus driver is paid EUR 3,400 gross a month and then drives a bus and -- or take a train driver. And then they transport, I don't know, millions of people, maybe hundreds of people on any given day. So that certainly is more responsibility than the responsibility you bear.

And sorry, you've spoken for about 12 minutes. So can you please come to an end here?

Yes. Well, I'm aware that I've been speaking for 12 minutes, and I appreciate it. But please tell me when will you finally dismantle the old telephone booths that are still out there? And I am going to submit another application to you because I am qualified. And it would be nice if you could then contact me. I would now like to thank you for granting me more time to speak, for organizing this AGM as a physical meeting, for the good meals and for the printed version of the annual report. Thank you. So I hope you'll consider my proposal. Ultimately, I think it's important that we safeguard Germany as a place to do business because a lot of companies are leaving this company. Why is that? Because salaries are too high and they can produce more cost effectively abroad. And the bonuses and the salaries paid to the Board members are also such a cost factor.

Thank you, Dr. Grimberg. Then I wanted to ask if Oliver Lukamp is still there. If he is, then he has the floor.

Thank you for allowing me to speak. I was a little bit surprised that it came up so quickly. Just I only need 2 or 3 minutes. In the last few years, I've also briefly spoken and complained slightly about the flow of information when you apply for something online. But in the last few years, there's been -- I've only had positive experiences. That's why I'd like to praise you for that. But I have a question about the fiber build-out. And I wish you would not have so many paper brochures just for environmental reasons going forward.

And my question though is relates to the city of Bochum and Glasfaser GmbH is cooperating with Telekom there for the build-out. And in the next 7 years, it's going to be completely covered with fiber without citizens having to take out or sign a contract with Telekom. But I have a question in that regard. There are several properties there in Bochum where they have a multifamily residential building. And then also, there's single-family houses in the same area. How are you planning in this city in Bochum or other similar cities to approach that. Do you think it would be possible to have a longer cable passing through a property where you could hook up other houses as well that are -- because it would be great if Bochum was completely covered with fiber.

But on these larger premises, there are certain -- sometimes buildings that can't be covered. And then the last question is, I heard years ago that telecommunication providers, they offer fiber to the home to every individual dwelling. What are you planning to do? Because with cable, you can lead cables into the house and through the staircase. Is it really important to connect every dwelling where you're building out fiber? Or what's your priority there? How does it look with regard to connection of each and every single dwelling?

Yes. I was going to propose that we have a break. But first, we'll take some more questions. [ Matthias Muth ], Thomas Kirchner and then Thomas Loninger also wanted to ask a question. But first of all, [ Matthias Muth ] is he there? If not, then I would ask Thomas Kirchner to step up. And Matthias Muth can -- if he's here, get ready and then to be followed up by Thomas Loninger. But first, yes.

Hello, everybody. My name is Thomas Kirchner. I'm a shareholder of DTAG. And I've been listening to what's been said by Mr. Hottges today. And it made me reflect a little bit. And in his opening presentation, he told about his vision and stressed the fact that there's a lot of responsibility and that diversity and freedom of opinion and speech and he stressed that these values are very important for him and the company. And -- but in answering the questions, he usually answered that they -- and Deutsche Telekom make sure that they just stick to the law in Germany and T-Mobile U.S. that they also make sure that they just comply with laws and regulations. And the question that I would like to raise as a shareholder and citizen is does the sharehold of DTAG in T-Mobile U.S. and the huge -- considering the huge contribution that T-Mobile makes to DTAG's balance sheet.

Are you negatively -- or am I as a shareholder by -- as a shareholder, negatively impacted by world events. I hear that we're making a profit, and I understand that you want to maximize profit within the legal realm. And of course, that's your good right and as a company. But as a shareholder, my problem with that is that I get a dividend for that profit. But at the same time, the world is becoming more -- yes, uncertain and insecure. Sorry about my voice and that's why I asked the question I have right away. Do you have the shareholders' structure in mind and individual shareholders, is it important to you how individuals support your company? And what would you say to somebody like me? Or how would you convince me and try to allay my concerns and fears about the company. The company aim and objective of -- sorry, I hope you understand roughly what I mean. I'm just -- I can't carry on.

Thank you, Mr. Kirchner, for your statement and question. Let me ask again, is [ Matthias Muth ] here in the auditorium? If not, then Thomas Loninger has a follow-up question.

Thank you. I'll keep it short, but I would ask you to answer my question because it wasn't answered yet. What is the revenue for the business in 2025 because there's people at Telekom that are called peering managers and there's transit agreements. And it said that a profit center is also associated with this. So my question relates to the total revenue that was achieved best of all split up or rather broken down. And also, you said it was groundless what I said. But when I said that your speech is we're showing it on our website. And you talked about a court and a litigation going on, Metor gave notice on a service and you had to keep paying for it, but network neutrality is not even addressed in this ruling, court ruling.

And that was the argumentation that we forwarded because the customer has incurred damage. And that leads to my second question, you talked about ratio. There has to be a proper ratio, but customers aren't interested in this. When you buy Internet services, you have to be able to rely on getting the whole Internet package. And I'd be interested in hearing whether this is -- is the official recommendation to have a VPN to have the different options that would guarantee network neutrality for the customer. And I won't go into open Internet details here.

But I think it's pretty interesting to look at what's happening in interconnection market right now and also that's exaggerated network neutrality in 5G. And trying to understand this, you said the technical characteristics should allow a distinction to be made. And that's what the Internet neutrality regulation is all about. What would you say, especially regarding specific products that Telekom is planning to put on the market because we've been having this debate since 2025 since the Commissioner Oettinger triggered in Europe. And I think it would be good to put this on an objective footing because the majority of countries in the world don't have network neutrality laws.

So maybe they exist. But in the U.S. where telecom operates, at the federal level, they don't have network neutrality. Donald Trump abolished it. And when you say we have to abolish it in Europe to make possible 5G innovation, why don't we have these fantastic new products then. So I hope you'll give me the revenue figures for the last business year.

Okay. If [ Matthias Muth ] isn't here after all, I can't see him anywhere, then we can strike him from the list of speakers. Then we've heard all the speakers now. And before we respond to them, I would like to note that after the end of the general debate, we'll go to the voting. And after that, we'll talk about the proxies and the voting rights and give you notes on the voting and also ballots that were already cast by mail. And it's required that we provide these notes regarding these voting procedures. So this brings me to a question from Mr. Rink. Mr. Rink, you asked whether it's possible next year to not discharge the entire Management Board, but to do it individually.

Well, we look at these proposals each year, and it depends on practice in our branch. And that's why in the 12 months, we'll look at that again, but I can't promise you that we'll do individual discharge instead of a collective discharge of the work of the Management Board. That was the first question of Mr. Rink. And the second question, Dr. Grimberg had 5 questions. Let's start with the question about -- you wanted to know with regard to AI, why we didn't contact you regarding advertising because you have the qualification for this. Ms. Grimberg, we have certain criteria, and we go through these criteria, also with external consultants and these criteria that we have, you are never on our list.

I just have to be honest about that. I have to admit that in all honesty. And that's why we didn't contact you because you weren't on our list. And that's our responsibility on the Supervisory Board to proceed as we do. And then doctor, this was asked by Dr. Herzig. No, this was a question about Dr. Herzig, why he isn't here. And you have to respect that there's people who have other responsibilities as well and changing these short term isn't always easy. And if -- if he's not there next year, then we would listen more closely to your criticism. But because we have to accept that not everybody can make it to this event.

And then you asked whether [indiscernible] had a second residence in Hamburg and whether it's paid for. Whether he has a second apartment in Bonn that's paid for. And the answer is no. Dr. Grim, I can't judge what personal reasons are and what aren't. And -- we're all happy if we're not affected by personal reasons and he's not on holiday, and that's why I'd ask you not to report about these. She's not on holiday, and that's why I'd ask you not to report on these personal reasons in any detail.

And also the remuneration of the Management Board. We believe that the way we proceed with the remuneration of the management and how we determine this is right, and that's why we'll continue to do it the way we do. And that was the question you had for me. And with that, I'll give the floor to Mr. Hottges.

It might be important to add that most of the remuneration for the Executive staff and Board of Management is pegged to the performance of the share price development. And there is a fixed component, but most of the remuneration is pegged to the share price. And when that develops positively, then that has a positive impact on the remuneration. This brings me to the topic. I'll start with [indiscernible]. You talked about after fiber is completely built out and we remove the copper, what we can do. There's 2 different processes for laying cable underground or then it's in a hollow pipe underground. And then there's a cable. And this cable and this empty pipe can be pulled out of it, and it can be reused, recycled or whatever or sold.

And -- but with the cables that are just put underground with a sheath, with the casing around them, they can't be removed from the earth. So there is no possible to remove them and then to reuse them or sell them. So at some point, we will switch off the copper network, and then we won't have any energy cost to operate it. But we have to build out fiber everywhere though before that. And fixed network and investment in our own network and interconnection fees since 2021, these have been determined by the European Commission with maximum rates. And these might be even lower than our actual costs, but they are -- have only a very minor importance.

I know this -- we've been concerned with this topic for a certain time. We negotiate the most important interconnection fees with our customers and customers pay -- and competition, our competitors pay to continue to use our lines like Vodafone, O2, et cetera, and they resell them their services, and we make sure that we are able to cover our costs.

[indiscernible] also asked about technical risks, especially if radio systems are switched off. First of all, the systems are continuously monitored, automatic monitoring. And if there are any disturbances, automatic resets will be made so that the sites will be booted up again. This is how we reduce economic losses. And one of the reasons why the Deutsche Telekom gets so many awards, and it's better than the peers is that we've got a high stability and quality and that we do not have so many voice interruptions.

So the systems are not standing still very often, not when there are geopolitical problems, but we are more concerned about hacker attacks and natural disasters. And here, we have to be well prepared to mobilize the systems again very quickly and to do repairs. The environment and nature are also taken into account, and this is also necessary if you set up a new mobile site where you set up such a tower. Just think of coasts, of floods, of land slides. There are extremely high safety rules, but also other interests we take into account when we build new sites, and this is an important element of nationwide provision of services.

Then there was a question concerning our CO2, our carbon emissions balance. What is not clear to everybody is that there are 3 scopes: Scope 1 and 2 and Scope 3. Scopes 1 and 2, this is what we need in terms of energies in our own operations, and we could reduce this by 94%. And this is almost carbon neutral now, but the much larger share is Scope 3, but we cannot directly influence Scope 3. Scope 3, ladies and gentlemen, is, for example, you. If you recharge your mobile phones, even if they are full or if they permanently use electricity, this will produce carbon emissions. And it is our aspiration, of course, that we also reduce our carbon emissions in Scope 3.

And we want to reduce these emissions by 55% by the year 2030. And this means all our suppliers who build routers, who build antenna will need CO2 energy. And this should be reduced by helping them by providing them the opportunity to use green electricity. Our customers, private and business customers need electricity. The end device manufacturers need electricity, and this needs to be reduced in a partnership. We have a partnership for emission reductions. We want to motivate people, and we want to save 55% of CO2 emissions by 2030. I hope that I could make myself clear.

5G is a question that I previously said was wrongly answered. We now have a 5G, full 5G coverage in Germany of 99.2% or 99.3% of the population. So where people are living, you have 5G, and there is also 5G stand-alone, but this is only a technical test. If you look at the area, we supply roughly 99% of the area with mobile connection, but this is not all 5G. The pure 5G provision is 90% currently. And this means that we cannot provide connections in all natural protection areas, conservation areas. For 5G, we need more towers because they have to be much closer together than for 2G. So you can still make a phone call, but you cannot use your data simply because we cannot build our towers everywhere. 30% of Germany are covered with forests. 6% of the countries covered with nature areas. And in those areas, it's difficult for us to build towers.

Mr. Luna, you talked about possible news for cycling sponsoring. No, cycling sponsoring is not part of our aspirations. Our sponsoring clearly focuses on soccer and on basketball, we will not come back to cycling even if it's now a popular sports again. Mr. Luna, you talked about our strategies for public phone booth. We no longer have coin-operated public phone booth. This operation was stopped in 2023. The 12,000 existing sites are now dismantled step by step. In the past, the municipalities never wanted us to dismantle them. Now it can't be quick enough. But if you do it, I have to point out, you also have to do civil engineering. We have to take out everything that there is. You cannot just cut the electricity and leave it in the ground.

This all needs to be discussed with the municipality, and this is a big effort, also a financial challenge. We are doing it step by step, but these are 12,000 existing sites, which need to be dismantled and rebuilt. We are interested in doing it soon, but we can't do it overnight. And you said that -- you talked about the situation of our employees. Yes, we commit ourselves to Germany, and we also want to have employment in Germany. We invest much more in Germany than in many other countries. We invest into fiber and 5G. And yes, here, we still have bundled a lot of tasks for the group.

But I also am honest and say we cannot afford this in the long run if this site is not productive. And if it's too expensive, then we have to think about alternatives. This is in the interest of the shareholders, but we also have to do this in order to ensure sustainability. And yes, we can pay high wages. But at the end of the day, they must be worthwhile for the group. Otherwise, we wouldn't do our job properly. And this is what we also have to take into account political conditions and civil wage costs, but also the normal wages. We have to compare this to other countries and take the necessary entrepreneurial decisions.

This is a problem because Germany is no longer as productive as in the past, and we have very high wage and salary costs. This brings me to the harmonization of digital sovereignty and the use of our strength and the comparison with the site in India. Our international site in India, for example, there, we've got people who wear magenta clothes with a T on their shirt, and they feel that they are part of Telekom. And we have the same responsibility for them and their families as we have for our employees here in Germany. They ask just the same members of our Telekom family, and they complement our teams here in Germany, and they carry out joint tasks.

It's not an isolated job, but they are included in the German value creation. So we will never shift or transfer total processes but partial processes. For example, software coding. Here, India is an important and interesting site for us. And it also made us much more agile and stronger in the past few years. And this is why it's also given us more sovereignty when we use employees worldwide. We do not delegate our value creation, but we strengthen it.

Mrs. Grimberg, talked about the satellites. We are not operating satellites ourselves. We don't want to do this, but we focus on our terrestrial use of fiber and mobile communications. For satellites, we are using partners, and there is no exclusivity. When we choose partners for satellites, we are interested in using several partners. Turning back to device services, that go directly to your mobile phone, such as the one from Starlink are contractually agreed, and we want to offer this with a good quality, the pricing strategy, how we sell them to our customers, we have not taken the decision yet because the service is not yet available. In the U.S., it's free of charge in the high -- in the premium rates. And in the smaller bundles, you have to pay an extra premium for this service.

And we are also involved in Iris2, the European satellite concept, but I have to say this is laying behind a little bit because the missile starts and the individual starts and landings are also influenced by Starlink. Then you are talking about the political situation of T-Mobile U.S. and the differences with Germany. Yes, in Germany, we are not making any donations to political parties or similar organizations. We are not allowed to do this. Donations to political parties or officers is forbidden here in the United States. The support of political representatives is more usual than in Germany, and it's part of good corporate citizenship if you do this.

We make sure that we do not just support one party or we prefer one party, and we are not donating money to the parties directly, but to nonprofit organizations that pass on the money, but this is something that is just part of the deal in the United States. Barbara Grimberg, So talking about the future use of satellites, our own satellite capacities, I already answered this question. Then Mrs. Grimberg was also asking about the cooling of our data center in Munich. Our ice pack is really spectacular today. There are many questions about it. And what is happening if you have many warm days in summer. The amount of water taken out is so little that even with low tight, the amount of water would be sufficient to cool our AI factory or our cloud factory.

So this is not a problem. And to repeat it, we are not heating up the river because the waste heat is used for district heating and for waste heating. Then you were talking about the risk of hacker attacks. This is a huge topic, and it's also a huge opportunity for this company at the same time because we are protecting the services and the networks for our customers in our group-wide security concept around the clock. We are monitoring the networks with a major security operations center here in Bonn. We analyze the software that attacks the ransomware that threatens our customers, and we cooperate with international security centers in order to use the knowledge in the world.

Many customers are prepared to spend money for this because they are afraid, of course, that critical company information is stolen. And we've got the Magenta security portfolio for small- and medium-sized enterprises. This is a solution that protects devices, provides cyber protection, for example, safety services. So we expanded this business quite strongly. And at this point, I would like to refer you back to our website. You can take a look here at our offering. I think we are leading in our segment in this area. And we are developing solutions that use AI, GPTs and agent models for these services.

Mr. Lukamp, you want to know what we do when we connect multifamily homes with fiber. Yes, of course, we want to do this. Just think about it. If you ask for a technician to repair your washing machine today, you first have to pay EUR 70 or EUR 80 for the technician to come to your home. And if you do this for each apartment, for each flat, without even talking about the real work cost, you can imagine how much more expensive it is when we go to the house several times. So it simply makes sense if you are in the building once that we connect all the flats, not only to the basement, but to the individual flats.

And in the future, we will do this in one step, all the flats will be supplied to not only the people who have rates for this already, who have subscribed already. And it would help not to have too many regulations if you've got a meeting of the owners of the own flats and you missed it, then you have to wait for another year before you are allowed to go there again. So this is not how it can work. We want to have a simplified process here. You are asking about the transfer of employees based on expensive collective bargaining agreement.

In the past, we always managed to find good solutions for the employees, and this is also one of the big transformation services that we provide, especially Birgit Bohle and her team are doing excellent work here. We also have a social partner with whom we always found a solution in the past, and this also shows the good cooperation that we have in the company. In the collective bargaining round 2027, we will also find a good compromise that appreciates the performance of the employees and makes it possible to participate in the success. I would like to involve and have the employees participate even more in terms of shares or variable remuneration, but you need the support of employee representatives here.

And I have to point out that we have enormous competition here in Germany that we have huge investments and that we have to protect jobs long term. So all in all, it should not be too expensive for us. And here, I would like to appeal to the social partners here in the company. We have to strike the right balance because only then will we be able to protect jobs here in Germany.

Dr. Grimberg. You asked when the phone boxes are switched off. This is so exciting that I'm reading it out twice. Okay. Mr. Eichmann, you asked in how far we can also support women sports more strongly. Deutsche Telekom as one of the first ones is already committed to female sports, and we continue to do this. I already told you that we are also have the rights for the soccer championship 2027 for females, and we support a lot of female sports. We are the official partner of the German Football Association. We support the German national team. The T is always in there, just watch out in the next match. And we also are the main sponsor of the Cologne Women's Football Club.

So if the men will do it, we will push at least the women. Please don't publish it in the minutes. I am a fan of Bavaria Munich. So I have to say this. Otherwise, Uli Hoene will be insulted. So we are supporting them. We are supporting the Paralympics, the special Olympics, and this is also true for females. And as Deutsche Telekom, with our initiative equal eSports, we also want to focus on equal rights of men, women and diverse people for gaming sports and eSports, and this is especially of relevance to young people.

Then you -- there was a question regarding a new AI factory next to Munich in London, for example. At present, we are clearly focusing on Germany. Our AI factory in Munich is on German soil because we want to have German quality made in Germany. And there are no plans to do anything in non-German sites. In the context of the EU Gigafactory initiative, the EU plans at least 5 sites with 100,000 graphic processes. We are using 10,000 in order to provide high-performing computing services to Europe. We will accompany this initiative and take our investment decision to step out of Germany.

We are first focusing on Germany, but we've got more than 300 megawatts of data centers in Germany, not the GPU and we also have European sites. London is not in there, and London is also a very expensive site. [indiscernible] you also asked about the vulnerability of critical systems based on AI. Yes, it's true. You never have 100% security and AI as everything in life is a gift and is a poison and poisons always depends on the dosage. We always have to take into account the negative sites as well and attacks on our software will, of course, increase with a higher use of AI.

This is true for the time before AI and for our future. And this is why we now have to invest into the protection of our entire infrastructure. And against this background, this is one of the biggest tasks where we have to invest money because this will not happen on its own. Mrs. Grimberg, you asked about the classical services in our data centers. We operate certified data centers in Germany and in Europe, providing cloud and IT services. All the services meet the requirements of data sovereignty based on GDPR. And with the industrial-based iCloud, we've got the Twin core data centers in [indiscernible] and another data center close to Amsterdam, where the T-cloud public, the sovereign cloud is operated.

Typical services are IT services for private and hybrid cloud, data protection, virtual jobs, SAP, IoT services and the hosting of security solutions. Mrs. Grimberg. You asked about the fiber contracts that were subscribed. Now we've got more than 2 million of our customers subscribing to fiber connection. And you are also talking about the hearing protection in our sites. Hearing protection is very important, and we place a high importance on occupational safety and health. We, of course, have hearing protection in these loud environment. Details on the number of people working there is part of the safety and security critical site information, and we are not allowed to make any public announcements.

[indiscernible] you further asked whether it's true that our copper network and the classical telephone DSL net will be shut off by December 2030. The answer is well known. No, Klaus. You referred to the TC cloud for small and medium-sized businesses. Well, of course, I mean, we are small compared to some big U.S. corporations. And I would have wished for the company to be bigger in this respect. But I cannot discuss all the background details. But we have comprehensive marketing plans for this in the second half of the year. There will be a campaign. So stay tuned for what's coming, T security and cloud. I mean, we are well represented in all the expert groups.

Mr. Kirchner, you mentioned the shareholder structure and the role of private shareholders. we manage Deutsche Telekom in such a way that the Telecom share will remain attractive for all kinds of shareholders, no matter how many shares they own. We inform all groups of shareholders, institutional investors, company shareholders. At the same time, they all enjoy the same rights of information. Christian Illek, Hannes Wittig and his team, they regularly win awards for this. I think, Christian, you've recently won another CFO of the Year award.

We're the only German stock corporation that offers its private shareholders a call every quarter where they can receive information that also institutional investors get. I participate in these events, and I'm available for questions, for your questions as well. Just go to our website, you will find this event there, and everybody can really get involved in this and get the latest information on strategy and also recent developments. This is a unique thing that we offer. Mrs. Grimberg, you asked about our power consumption and the breakdown.

The data center is designed for a 12-megawatt consumption. And the AI center has a P value of 1.2 and a PEU of 1.2. 85% of the power goes to the IT systems and 15% goes for cooling, power distribution and other infrastructure. We optimize this distribution continuously using AI systems for optimal cooling in order to maximize the share that goes into the computing part. So most of the power that we use for our industrial AI cloud goes into computing operations and is not used for cooling.

Brings me to the question about satellite activities. Mr. Luma asked this question about possible equity investments in companies like Airbus, Airbus Defense and Space. The Chairman of the Supervisory Board is our old CEO, Obermann. So we have a project called 6G takeoff, which was -- has been subsidized by the federal government and has a life of 3 years. We don't operate any satellites of our own, but we use partnerships to do that. Ms. Grimberg, you asked about the use of Indian services like writing code, for example. We use Pune, Bangalore and Gurgaon. These are our Indian locations. They are an integrated part of our organization along with the units in Germany. Colleagues work on software development and optimization for customers in the entire group. with the exception of the United States.

Mr. Lukamp, you asked about connecting buildings in the back of other buildings. Unfortunately, we often don't see them in the land registers. So we don't have really good documentation on some of these buildings. That's why we have developed our own land register. Through the copper network, you can identify whether there are any buildings built behind front buildings, so second-line buildings. I can't give you any information, specific information on what the situation is in the city of Bochum, but we build fiber into buildings and into apartments. And since we're building new lines, we don't have some of the problems that others have.

So I think we need to clarify this offline. Mr. Loninger, you asked about our attitude regarding network neutrality in terms of 5G. 5G allows new features, performance features like very short latencies, virtual performances, one infrastructure, interconnecting networks on the Internet of Things, high data rates. And let me give you a specific example. In the U.S., we sell a product called TPriority. The police they use this product. Whenever it has a channel, it has priority in the network. So ambulances, police cars can use this service much faster than others and at a high-quality level.

So other bandwidth, if necessary, are reduced so that the police can go first. I think this makes sense, this service. And it's something that we cannot easily introduce in Germany. So we are using the technological opportunities of 5G very consistently in the U.S. And I think we need to maintain this flexibility also for our flexibility here in Europe and in Germany. But this, I think, is too detailed and too technical for the AGM. Maybe we could have this discussion somewhere else, the discussion on network neutrality.

So we should offer this service first and then look afterwards whether something has gone wrong rather than explaining before anything happens, what you need to regulate and then just use this buzzword of network neutrality because this is too restrictive. We should turn it around. So I think this concludes my list of questions. I have 2 -- there are 2 more questions that are in progress.

Now I have a question from Mr. Rink, who asked us what the return on capital target for 2030 is. We haven't issued -- we haven't published any. We have one for 2027, 9% that I mentioned before. But you can assume that we assume rising amounts. So return on capital is probably going to go up. It's not going to skyrocket, but it should be above the 9%. We haven't communicated anything officially yet. Second question from Mr. Luna. He asked whether there are any plans to raise our equity investment in IT DBT. We have a stake of 12%, which is in our pension fund right now and benefit from the dividend payout twice a year.

There are no plans to expand that share -- that stake. One represent of the Deutsche Telekom is in the Supervisory Board of BT. Another question by Mr. [indiscernible]. If you raise a dividend and buy back shares and increase capital, then this doesn't go together, right? Yes, if you do all of this simultaneously that doesn't make any sense. But we just won the vote under Item 8 in case we do a capital increase. We've done this before. And then -- we acquired SoftBank shares for T-Mobile. It doesn't make sense to buy back shares and at the same time do a capital increase. You're right about that. It will only happen if it's separated in time. So in 1 year, you do a capital increase and in another year, you do a share buyback. Of course, this needs to be managed carefully.

So what is the impact on -- of carbon neutrality on your capital -- return on capital targets? We are not measuring this because the impact might be too small. So return on capital, we measure this after tax, so EUR 19 billion, that's our EBIT and we have EUR 255 billion net assets and the carbon reduction makes up maybe EUR 100 million to EUR 200 million. So it doesn't really fit in the context of these major figures, billions. Now we printed 2,500 of these [indiscernible] and how much did this cost? EUR 318.50.

And now a question which basically stressed out the back-office staff a little bit, Mr. [indiscernible] asked question of how high the peering and transit revenue was in '25? In Germany and all European companies, it was at about EUR 100 million, but we cannot break this down to companies -- national companies.

Ms. [indiscernible] also asked about the 5G products. We have 5G gaming, mobile cloud games with different latencies. We have campus networks for electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles that operate in factories, outside factories. We have video production where you need high bandwidth for interviews, for example, we've got Apple watches and the RedCap standard that we offer. All of these offers require certain network parameters where, of course, you can upset about this from a network neutrality perspective, but against the backdrop of the customer interest and customer benefit this is important key priority.

I mentioned that for first responders and fixed wireless access, so the use of mobile services that you use at home, if you have your router connected via mobile, you need different parameters. There, you also need to have a chance to differentiate your services. And now this brings me to the 6G network. We are currently developing 6G. If, again, we impose ourselves certain barriers like sensing and other vectors like AI functionalities. If we limit ourselves right from the start, then the innovation strength of our country is severely curtailed, and we will lag behind even more behind the Americans.

Mr. [indiscernible], you also asked whether we issue the official recommendation to use a VPN to our customers. Now I was personally really annoyed by this question because you personally know we had an employee in a tweet. She simply wanted to help somebody because somebody complained along the lines that you also mentioned, and she tried to help this customer and told him that you can use a VPN.

Now I mean you just put her on the spot here, you basically humiliated her by using this example just because she gave a wrong answer. I don't think it's right to do that. Because our service staff, they respond to hundreds and thousands of questions and according to our slogan that you can depend on telecom.

And of course, mistakes happen and simply to pick this out and blow this up so much, I think, should not be done. Of course, every individual provider takes its own decisions. It's not us. We believe in direct interconnection and we also believe in flexible and open Internet for everybody. This was an individual mistake that I don't want to keep commenting on. I think I answered all the questions. Thank you very much.

Can I assume that all questions posed by shareholders today have been answered. If not, please pose your question once again.

Last year, I was positively surprised because you stated how much money you had paid for the due diligence insurance, which doesn't exist in other countries. But unlike last year, you did not specify the same amount this year, nor did you tell us how many people participated in this, and how much damages had to be paid by the insurance companies. What's the relevant amount here? It would be nice if you could specify that. And if the numerous back office staff are not able to answer this question at short notice now, then I would appreciate it if you could e-mail me your answer, you do have my e-mail address.

Just an objection to the minutes. I did not specify any individuals. I was referring to several statements made by telecom through Telecom [indiscernible] and on Twitter, et cetera. You just mentioned a female employee that I did not mention. Mr. [indiscernible], this was an individual case. There was a tweet and the employee then gave the answer that it would be possible to use a VPN. And then somebody fed back to her that telecom was making a fool of themselves.

Well, for many years, that was precisely the recommendation given by telecom staff. You're saying it's an individual case. I am saying that this has -- that this happened continuously. So that wasn't a question. Thank you. But there is another comment.

Just briefly. I did ask a question about AI. Just to be sure and I mentioned this 55 Deutschmark bank notes. And I also said that the Google AI is saying that there may be an error and I figured there are probably loads of people who are afraid that the same errors may occur with the AI systems used by telecom. But I'm assuming that this will be stopped and that those who are afraid can be reassured that you'll be dealing with it.

Was this a question or a comment?

Well, just because my question has not been answered, but this is not an additional question.

Well, let me reiterate what I have said in another context before. Obviously, we are using AI to answer questions, but there's always a person that plausibilizes the answer so that you wouldn't actually see a 55 Deutsche Mark banknote.

Yes. I just wanted to make sure that we pass this on to whom it may concern.

Look, you don't have to be afraid of Deutsche Telekom's AI systems. They make sure that there is no misuse and no errors. It should be a good thing for everybody involved. That's just what I meant to say. Right?

There is another follow-up question.

I'm sorry. I would like to get back to the Google-related question, which has not been answered. Is there an alternative to this web client and secondly, has any money paid either from telecom to Google or the other way around or nothing at all? And then sorry, there's one question that I forgot to mention, but I'll be quick. Creative occupations like authors, speakers, cameramen, et cetera, people working in media, such jobs are very much under threat because of AI. And in this context, I would like to know, you showed us this trailer with Albert Einstein. Was this an AI-generated trailer? Or was it an actual actor? If it was a proper actor, then I'm impressed. If it was AI, then I must say that's quite scary.

Well, let me answer this by saying usually for any such films, we use about 50% AI. So it's a mix of human actors and artificial intelligence. And that, of course, clearly reduces the cost of production and also gives us more room for creativity. And the second question I'll have to look at up. But as far as I know, no money has been paid between telecom and Google here.

Of course, license fees are always paid, but you can also use another client in connection with our magenta TV. For instance, Samsung and then this would not go through your Gmail account necessarily. You can also use another account. So there are alternative access options. If you like, we can put you in touch with one of our technicians and he can give you more information about how to do this.

Another question.

I believe that my question has not been answered. My question was I said that I'm having some ethical problems with holding Telekom shares and benefiting from the profits that you have generated. So can you give me -- I don't know, piece of advice or can you dispel my concerns at all because I am a Telekom shareholder and I mean can you sort of encourage or motivate me to buy more shares because your answer was kind of a very general answer. And it would be nice if I could filter out some feedback specific to me. When I try to do that, it would be something along the lines of, we don't care about ethics at all and if you don't like it, then just sell off your stock, but I can't believe that this is what you were actually trying to say. That's why I'm saying I don't think my question has been answered, so it would be nice if you could specifically react to what I said about my ethical concerns with buying Telekom shares due to the situation in the U.S.

My answer is this. Telekom is active in Western countries and in Europe and in the U.S. We don't have a footprint in Asia or Africa or South America. And in these countries, we represent the rule of law and the relevant laws. And that also holds true for the U.S., not just since the Trump administration took office, but we've always honored the laws and regulations there. We have more than 70,000 employees in the U.S., which means that we have a lot of responsibility also for their families.

In the U.S., in particular, Telekom has a reputation of being one of the cost-efficient providers that offers excellent quality at the same time. And we also cover those groups of the population that cannot afford an expensive AT&T and Verizon contract.

So in addition to the 75,000 staff that work for us, we have hundreds of thousands of customers. And so we have a footprint in America where we have an American democracy. And if there's anything to criticize, I can't do that because I can't change it. If you demand that telecom withdraw from the U.S. because you don't like the current political system there, then, yes, that is up to you. But Telekom cannot take responsibility for that sort of thing.

I couldn't take responsibility for that because we do have responsibility for a lot of people in the U.S. We are the most important provider of 5G services in the U.S., for instance and let me reiterate. Our corporate values that we represent and that we also stick to in Germany and elsewhere in terms of diversity, in terms of freedom of opinion, et cetera, these values apply in the U.S. just as they apply in Greece, Poland, Germany, et cetera.

And we cannot take any political influence that would just curve us. And of course, we would never approve any breach of the rule of law in the form of corruption or anything else, no matter where it is. And as far as the shareholder structure is concerned, we follow the rules of the capital markets.

And whoever wants to buy stock, can do that. I don't know every individual shareholder. There are millions of shareholders across the globe. We have a lot of shareholders from Germany, but also a lot of shareholders in the U.S. who play a very dominant role in the global capital markets anyway. I hope that this has -- I don't know. I can see you're nodding. I mean we can't discuss that by literally any further here, but I hope that my answer has provided some insight.

Well, you're not making it any easier for me to take a decision. I'm not expecting you to interfere with policymakers or to completely withdraw from the U.S., but I was hoping to see more, say, commitment or maybe I was expecting you to come up with a statement that would put me in a position to continue holding Telekom stock with a clean conscience. And I'm a little disappointed that you haven't made that decision any easier for me. It is still a difficult decision, but thank you anyway.

Let me add to this. Needless to say, the Supervisory Board and the Board of Management are also dealing with the questions that you just raised. And the Supervisory Board believes that Deutsche Telekom's values are being filled with life. But the world is not just black and white. It is gray, and that's something that we need to handle, and that always comes with new challenges.

All right. There's another follow-up question.

Mr. Hottges, Dr. Illek, thank you very much for answering the questions. Nonetheless, my questions have not been answered completely. I asked about the open cloud that was the talk of the town a couple of weeks ago, what's Telekom's position about that? But I did ask about it, didn't I? And then you've provided the same answer to another of my questions last year. But in Spain, we also have a capital increase and prices go up and up. And you do -- you buy back the shares and the share prices are down. And that happens with a lot of other companies, too, like [indiscernible] sometimes the share prices are up but just briefly, and then they plummet again. So my question is, what does Germany have to do? For instance, the main shareholder of VARTA also said that he doesn't understand how Germany is handling the situation. Why small investors are put at such a big disadvantage compared to the big investors. There was one company where -- that did a capital increase and then reduced capital at the same time. Now that is permissible under German law. How is that even possible? So that's what my question was all about.

It's a theoretical question, which is what needs to happen in order for capital increases to be possible in Germany again. And you did not answer that.

Well, I did answer your question. I mean that's what you said last time, too, because I brought up the same question last year. Sorry. And I have another question regarding the taxes and electricity costs. How high are they like electricity costs like internationally speaking? Are we at the top? And how about taxes, yes, I forgot to ask about that? Thank you. And thank you for allowing -- for answering the question so far.

Okay. So we have one question to go. Actually, only follow-up questions are permissible now. Okay. Then one last question. The speakers of mic, we can't hear him.

I do have a T-shirt for you. Now if we manage to come to a close here sometime tonight, then I can give you this T-shirt.

Okay. Then Mr. [indiscernible] question on the D&O insurance. The D&O insurance costs EUR 365 million of which Supervisory Board members and Board of Management members. Yes, are covered -- I'm not aware of any damages. I'm not aware of any cases where we would have used the insurance.

Now have all questions been answered. There's a last question, but this is really the last question.

Sorry. The factory that you talked about for all these servers. If you want to build another one in Germany, then let me tell you the wind turbines and not in Germany often stand still because the energy cannot be used and -- because in Bavaria, I mean Bavaria prevents the energy that is generated in the north from being transported to the south, and they've been doing that for decades. Just to let you know. I mean there's enough energy in the north, just throwing it out there, wind energy.

Well, let me try to answer this question. I hope I got it right. As for Anthropic and Claude, Telekom yes, uses both of them as important elements of our AI portfolio. Of course, we always make sure that compliance and data protection rules are adhered to. We're not using these technologies exclusively. Claude as part of our serving offers and we have piloted Claude in the company actively. And currently, there is a discussion about gaining accesses for Anthropic and using that client, too. Right now, we are using Azure a great deal, needless to say. And we bought 50,000 licenses from OpenAI and for ChatGPT enterprise for our staff. But needless to say, we are using different large language models. We are working with different partners. And that's why we are sort of agnostic, if you will. And -- but yes, we haven't exclusively opted for one technology or another.

Right. I think the last point raised was more of a statement than a question. It was said that a lot of wind energy is generated in Northern Germany. So that would actually be a question to a Board member from RWE and how this energy could possibly be made available to the data centers when the sun is not shining. But yes, we might want to discuss that on another occasion. So let me ask for the last time, have all questions of the shareholders been answered? I hereby state that all questions have been answered and I hereby close the general debate.

I would like to thank all speakers for their contributions and the Board of Management for answering the questions.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now proceed to the vote pursuant to Section 17 Paragraph 2 of the bylaws that is my responsibility as Chair of the meeting to determine the manner and order of the votes. Voting will take place via mobile voting devices that we're using as electronic ballot boxes. So votes are assigned to shares by scanning the QR code printed on your AGM card. The votes recorded using the mobile voting devices will be transferred to a computer system for vote counting after the voting period closes. The transfer and the subsequent counting will be supervised by a notary. The addition method is used to determine the voting results. In this process, the yes and no votes are counted separately and then added together to determine the total number of votes cast. Abstentions will not be counted.

To ensure material supervision, you may cast your vote only here in the main room that is in this New York hall, including the gallery accessible to you. If you wish to participate in the voting, please proceed to the main room now and have your AGM card ready. For the sake of clarity, I would like to point out that voting by the company's proxies as well as voting by those intermediaries, proxy advisers and shareholder associations that make use of the virtual voting card service will take place differently from what was previously stated.

They are cast by the present proxy holders or the present representative of the respective intermediary, proxy adviser or shareholder association releasing the votes previously submitted electronically. Subsequently, these votes are also entered into the computer system for vote counting. In addition, shareholders have made use of the option to vote by mail. These postal votes have also already been electronically recorded and are taken into account by the computer during the vote count. Before we proceed to the vote, I will once again announce the current attendance.

So the number of shares has changed. Right now, we have 3,432,207,603 (sic) [ 3,432,207,306 ] no-par-value shares that corresponds to EUR 8,787,450,703.36 or 69.97% of the capital stock, which is -- consists of various parts. The relevant numbers will be shown on the screen in a moment likely. Here they are. In addition, we've received postal votes for 19,899,889 no-par-value shares, which will be taken into account for the voting result later on.

This means we have more than 4 billion no-par-value shares and this corresponds to 70.38% of the capital stock. As for the individual items on the agenda, I would like to point out that I will, first of all, take a vote on the proposals made by management.

We will now proceed to the votes on the administration's proposed resolutions regarding agenda items 2 through to 11. The updated version of the management's proposed resolution for agenda item 2 is up for a vote. I already presented this when I called for agenda items 2 through 11 prior to the general debate. The differences from the proposed resolution contained in the invitation to the AGM result from the change in the number of shares entitled to dividends compared to the number used as a basis in the invitation. As previously announced, the dividend to be distributed in accordance with the proposed resolution remains unchanged at EUR 1 per share -- per no-par-value share.

For agenda item 3 to 11, the management's proposed resolutions are presented for a vote with a wording derived from the invitation to today's AGM published in the Federal Gazette on the 27th of February 2026. Regarding agenda items 3 and 4, I would like to draw your attention to the prohibition on voting pursuant to Section 136 of the German Stock Corporation Act. Furthermore, for the sake of order, I would like to point out that regarding agenda item 5, that anyone who wishes to reject only 1 or 2 of the appointments of Deloitte proposed under subitems A through C must vote against the entire resolution under agenda Item 5.

If this proposed resolution is rejected by a majority, I will conduct a separate vote on subitems A, B and C. Regarding agenda item 7, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in this resolution, you may vote separately on the election of each candidate by way of a separate vote. Resolutions on agenda items 2 through 11 require a simple majority of the valid votes cast.

The resolution on agenda Item 8 requires, in addition to a simple majority of the valid votes cast a majority of at least 3/4 of the share capital represented at the time of the resolution. The respective resolutions on agenda items 9 and 10 additionally require a simple majority of the share capital represented at the time of the resolution. If you wish to vote for or against one or more of the -- the management's proposed resolutions regarding agenda items 2 through 11, you must now proceed to the main room that is here in the New York hall, including the gallery accessible to you and have your AGM card ready.

The votes will be consolidated. This means that voting will take place in a single round using the mobile voting devices with each item on the ballot treated as a separate matter. You decide independently of one another, to what extent you will participate in the voting by casting your vote and whether you will vote yes, no or abstain. Once voting has begun, give a clear hand signal to the staff members assigned to collect your votes. A staff member with then approach you. In fact, they're already waiting.

First, present your AGM card to them so that the QR code on it can be scanned. Next, for each of management's proposed resolutions regarding agenda items 2 through 11, please indicate whether you support management's proposal that is whether you wish to vote yes or oppose it. That is whether you wish to vote no. If you wish to abstain from voting on the -- on management's proposed resolutions regarding individual agenda items, please indicate that as well.

Next, review the voting preference displayed on the mobile voting device, confirm to the staff member that your voting preference is accurately reflected. After this confirmation, the staff member will cast your vote. If you wish to abstain from voting, on all agenda items regarding management's proposed resolutions. You do not need to inform our staff of your voting preference. If you have any questions about the procedure, our staff will, of course, be happy to assist you. I now ask our staff to collect the votes here in the main room. Voting is hereby opened. And I am indicating this by way of the guard.

[Voting]

Have all shareholders who wish to vote yes or no on one or more of the management's proposed resolutions regarding agenda items 2 through 11 cast their votes? And there are still votes to be cast? Please indicate a clear hand signal if this is the case. Let me ask again. Are there still those to be cast, please give a clear signal with your hand. This is not the case. I hereby declare that all the votes on agenda items 2 through 11 have been cast. I hereby close the voting.

I will announce the results of the vote as soon as tally is available. The notary public will now count the vote. There will be a brief break, and I will come back to you. Thank you.

[Break]

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now continue. I have the voting results before me. Now and I have a photograph, yes, thank you. The general meeting has approved all of the Board's proposed resolutions. I will now announce the results on the individual items on the agenda, and I will give you the voting results. Where am I now? Yes. The general meeting has approved the proposed resolutions with the number of votes presented. We had 70.38% presence during the vote.

On Item 2 of the agenda, the result was 99.85%. This was the resolution on the appropriation of dividend of profits in line with the presence that I immediately presented before the votes and the numbers are available for -- before inspection here. On agenda Item 3, there was the result of 99.21% of the necessary votes. So discharge was granted for the members of the Management Board.

On Item 4, the approval was 95.4%, and this was the resolution on the approval of the actions of the members of the Supervisory Board for the period effected. Thank you very much on behalf of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board.

On Item 5 on the agenda, the result is 99.62% of votes cast. So we have the necessary simple majority of votes and Deloitte GMBH Wirtschaftspr fungsgesellschaft Munich was appointed as auditor and group auditor for 2026, auditor for a review of the condensed financial statements and the interim group management report for the 2026 financial year and as an auditor for any review of additional interim financial reports for the 2026 financial year and the first quarter of the 2027 financial year.

On Item 6 on the agenda. There was approval of 99.68%, reaching the simple majority necessary and Deloitte GMBH Wirtschaftspr fungsgesellschaft Munich was appointed as auditor for sustainability reporting if this is required by the government. And if the task is not part of the auditor's activities anyway.

On the election of the Supervisory Board, Mr. Frank Appel received 93.06% of the votes so with a simple majority necessary. Dr. Appel was elected as the Supervisory Board member. On Stefan B. Wintels, 85.51% of the vote cast elected him as a Supervisory Board member. Dr. Thomas Dohmke received 99.17% of the votes cast and thus reached the necessary simple majority. So he is now a member of the Supervisory Board. On Dr. Philipp Herzig, the 99.08% -- sorry, 98.08% of the cast vote and a simple majority, Dr. Philipp Herzig was appointed member to the Supervisory Board. I would like to express me thank you for giving me and colleagues for trust.

On agenda Item 8, 95.62% of the votes cast, and this means the necessary qualified majority decided about the cancellation of authorized capital 2022 and the creation of authorized capital 2026, the full content is to be seen under agenda Item 8 in the invitation.

On Item 9 of the agenda, 98.32% of the votes cast. Thus, a simple majority was in favor of the resolution on the amendment of Section 13 of the articles of incorporation and the remuneration of the Supervisory Board members for the full text. Please view the invitation under Item 9.

On item 10 of the agenda, 57.14% of the votes cast decided on the inclusion of a jurisdiction clause in Section 21 of the articles of incorporation following the proposal as shown under Item 10 in the invitation to this AGM.

On item 11, 95.11% of the votes cast, thus the necessary simple majority approved the remuneration report for the year 2025. So I now only focused on the necessary votes and the detailed results will -- were shown on the screen as you saw. And I point -- I refer you to the numbers shown on screen. All interested shareholders can also get the results at the speakers' desk and you can also see these results on the web page of the company after the meeting.

Ladies and gentlemen, this leads us to the end of our agenda. I would like to thank you very much on behalf of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board for your personal participation in this year's AGM. And I also would like to thank you for my election, for the election of Mr. Wintels and the other 2 members. I would like to thank the employees who help prepare and organize this AGM and contributed to its smooth conduct.

Yes, this is well deserved. It was a long day, a long evening. Finally, I would like to note that the next Annual General Meeting of Deutsche Telekom AG is expected to take place on the 14th of April 2027 in Bonn and we invite all the shareholders once again cordially. I wish you a safe trip home. Goodbye. Today's meeting is closed. Goodbye, and see you.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

Good afternoon, and welcome to Deutsche Telekom's Full Year 2025 Conference Call. As you can see with me today is our CEO, Tim Hottges; and our CFO, Christian Illek, as usual, and they will be accompanied today by our Board member for Europe, Dominique Leroy, our Board member for Germany, Rodrigo Diehl and our Board member and CEO of T Systems, Ferri Abolhassan.

As usual, Tim will first go through some highlights. He will be followed by Rodrigo, who will dive deeper into the strategy and financials for Germany. After that, Dominique will dive deeper into the European segment before Ferri will update on the outlook for T-Systems. Christian will then complete the picture before some closing remarks from Tim, and then we have time for Q&A. Before I hand over to Tim, please pay attention to our usual disclaimer, which you will find in the presentation. And please also note that this conference will be recorded and uploaded to the Internet. And now it's my pleasure to hand over to Tim.

Yes. Thank you, Hannes, and welcome, everybody, to our call today. And you find us in great mood here today because we had a great fourth quarter, and we have a great 2025 results and a good outlook for '26, so it's going to be an optimistic call.

2025 was a successful year, and we concluded it with a strong quarter. And we want to give you as a team jointly today, an insight into the operations, but even with regard to our Capital Markets Day targets because it's half term, and it's time to even assess how we are looking with regard to the Capital Markets Day forward.

Srini, he is already giving you an update 2 weeks ago, and the team confirmed the Capital Markets Day's ambitions. They even raised some of the targets and I'm highly appreciating the reaction from the market on this one. Despite the competition and all this kind of poly crisises which are around us, we are delivering strong results as promised. We are on track for our CMD targets not only in the U.S. but also in DT ex U.S. and for the group as a whole.

In the last quarter, and I like to reiterate that our most important financial and commercial KPIs did not only grow year-on-year, but they even accelerated quarter-on-quarter. So in every regard, the fourth quarter, and I'm very happy and we're going to talk about that, Germany was accelerating as well. We had great developments in the fourth quarter. I like the momentum.

So going forward, I think the overview shows the highlights. We delivered 3.8% organic service revenue growth, 4.7% EBITDA AL growth, EUR 19.5 billion free cash flow, and we grew our adjusted earnings to EUR 2 per share. We had market-leading customer growth in all segments. Our networks remain leading, and we are investing to extend our lead. By the way, in some markets, we have achieved the highest service revenue market share ever and even in Germany, very close to 40%.

We are aggressively driving AI throughout the value chain. We launched Europe's first industrial AI cloud. We are the first DAX company and the first multinational telco to reach 0 CO2 emissions, and I'm very proud of that. We increased our stake in T-Mobile to now 52.8% and we returned EUR 6.4 billion to shareholders last year. We announced a record dividend of EUR 1 and another EUR 2 billion share buyback. And last but not least, I'm happy to say that the Supervisory Board yesterday decided to extend the contracts of our Board members, Birgit Bohler, HR, Ferri Abolhassan, T-Systems and Thorsten Langheim, Group Development and the U.S. within the Board. I should say, I'm happy that they extended their commitment to our company and not the other way around because these are great fellows. And now our team is complete.

We have the young kids on the block, and we have experienced people around us. In this kind of instability of the world, the management of Deutsche Telekom is stable.

As you can see on the next page, all our segments contributed to our '25 EBITDA growth. After another strong quarter, T-System leads the 2025 league table, congratulation Ferri. It was Dominique last year. This time it is you, with a growth of 14.4% organic EBITDA AL growth. With another strong performance from our Europe segment, our ex U.S. EBITDA AL grew by in 2025.

On Networks, we keep our market-leading position, which is our foundation of success. In the last 12 months, we passed 3.7 million additional European homes with FTTH. We now reach nearly 24 million homes, of which 12.6 million in Germany alone. And in Germany, and Rodrigo will talk about that, we had a record quarter for fiber homes passed and homes connected. And by the way, utilization went up as well.

In the U.S., we now have almost 1 million fiber customers. At their Capital Markets Day, T-Mobile outlined a target of 3 million to 4 million fiber customers by 2030. Our Mobile networks remain leading across the footprint and we will not stop. In Germany, we decisively won all network tests, and our European networks are also leading. And I can tell you, our competition is very sensitive on that one, but this is very funny to see how they're trying to legally fight against us when we are claiming that we have the best networks. So there seems to be nervous about it.

T-Mobile talked about this network leadership in the U.S. as well 2 weeks ago, and we were particularly pleased that T-Mobile for the first time, topped the J.D. Power Wireless Network Quality survey with wins in 5 out of 6 regions. This is the Deutsche Telekom, always the best mobile network.

AI and digital. On Page 7, you can see our update on AI and digitization. And by the way, this chart is getting busy and busy every day. Today, we have 500 projects running the company. And to be honest, we cannot put that all on 1 slide. So we're going to have an AI Investors Day coming soon, where we give you the opportunity to really understand not only the projects, but all details and the impact this AI projects is going to have more to come.

Two weeks ago, you already heard about the remarkable process -- progress at T-Mobile. Over 100 million downloads of their T Life app and already 3/4 of customer upgrades done digitally. We continue to make excellent progress on this side of the Atlantic as well. And what you can see on this page is really only the tip of the iceberg. Overall, we feel very comfortable. And to be honest, I believe we have to increase the target on this one, but more to come.

With regard to our CMD '24 cost savings target of EUR 800 million from AI and digital for DT ex U.S. by 2027. I will not go through this slide because Dominique, Rodrigo and Ferri will cover some of the topics later on as well.

Let me just say that we will be hosting on AI an event. And by the way, for me, the most important thing is that we decided that recently that all employees of Deutsche Telekom is going to be enabled to use OpenAI ChatGPT very soon. So there are no excuses anymore for our employees. Everybody is now involved into the AI endeavor within the company.

Customer growth. Our market-leading customer growth continued on both sides of the Atlantic. Our mobile customer growth remained very strong, with another record quarter in the U.S. And in broadband, the European segment delivered strong and steady growth. While full year broadband subs were negative in Germany, we were able to stabilize our customer base in the fourth quarter. And I know that most of you have not expected this for the fourth quarter.

Moving on to the capital allocation. We are delivering steady growth in shareholder returns, including a proposed dividend increase to a record of EUR 1 for 2025 and the third consecutive EUR 2 billion share buyback program. At the Capital Markets Day, we outlined EUR 50 billion of expected surplus by 2010. This surplus is fundamentally intact but it has been partially allocated already.

Christian, I will take the money. Is that okay? Good. Our 2026 surplus is effectively committed to the ongoing DT share buybacks and further TMUS share increases -- sorry, stake increases. After our decision not to sell TMUS shares alongside the ongoing buyback.

Next, let's review our '25 guidance achievement. Bottom line is that we delivered on our guidance for 2025 on both sides of the Atlantic. In fact, we are slightly outperforming our last guidance update that we provided at the Q3 stage.

Let me now move to 2026 and the new guidance. Another strong year ahead. As always, our group guidance is based on last year's average dollar exchange ratio. It's a dollar exchange. We have $1.13 in 2025 and is the sum of the guidance for DT ex U.S. and for T-Mobile U.S., adjusted by the expected U.S. GAAP IFRS bridge.

T-Mobile U.S. provided its 2026 guidance on February 11. Outside of the U.S., we guide for an EBITDA AL of around EUR 15.4 billion or about 2% to 3% growth and a free cash flow of around EUR 3.7 billion or about 3% growth. For the group, we guide an EBITDA AL of around EUR 47.4 billion or about 6% growth and acceleration compared to 2026. Free cash flow of around EUR 19.8 billion or about EUR 3 billion foreign exchange adjusted growth and an adjusted EPS of around EUR 2.20 or about 10% foreign exchange adjusted growth.

As usual, we have a page in the appendix in which we compare our guidance with the consensus using a foreign exchange rate of $1.17.

On the next page, we provide a midterm assessment of where we stand against the key ambitions of 2023 through 2027 that we stated at the 2024 Capital Markets Day. Our guidance, as shown here, is organic. And as you can see, we are on good track for almost all targets. There are 2 targets where we are lagging. DT ex U.S. service revenues due to a slower growth in Germany, Rodrigo, and we are also currently behind on our KPI indirect cost as a percentage of service revenues. But this is largely due to the mentioned shortfall in service revenues.

We are doubling down on efficiencies to mitigate this. Despite these shortfalls, we remain confident to deliver our Capital Markets Day '24 guidance for DT ex U.S. adjusted EBITDA AL and the growth and the free cash flow, which we have laid out.

So with this positive perspective into the future, let me now hand it over to Rodrigo for a deeper dive into our exciting Germany segment.

Thank you, Tim, and I got the message. Welcome, everybody. I will start with an overview of how we have executed against our strategic targets before I go deeper into the financials and I will round up later with an overview of our strategic priorities for 2026.

We made good progress along our strategic targets. 2025 was an important year for a fiber build. We now reach 12.6 million from past in Germany and added twice as much, I repeat twice as much many fiber customers as in 2023. We achieved substantial efficiencies in our fiber build held by AI. And as I mentioned already at the end of last year, we reconfigured our fiber strategy more on this later.

When it comes to our digital and AI-driven transformation, we see very encouraging early results. You can see a few examples on this page. Our customer chatbot now fully LLM based, achieves a 55% solution rate, 3.4 million contacts were solved by chat or voice bots. We have reached 40% zero-touch automatic call identification. This saves around 30 seconds per call for our agents, and we have rolled out AI-based automatic call documentation, which saves another 30 to 60 seconds at the end of the call for our agents. And all this goes to the bottom line with a 10% reduction in call volumes, each call has a cost that we achieved in 2025.

We also made progress with our differentiation and market leadership, a key element of our strategy. We won all, I want to repeat, all service center, shop and mobile network tests. We established Magenta moments in the market with 5 million active users. Magenta moment also goes to the bottom line because these users have 3.5x higher NPS and 20% less churn.

Our first-time resolution rate reached 77%. This too drives higher customer satisfaction. Complaints, a number I personally look at every day, were down by 50% in the last 2 years alone. And our brand recognition has reached the highest ever level.

Moving now on this page to our financials. I'm pleased to say that after a weaker third quarter, our headline financials are back on track. Organic revenues were up a strong 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Two factors contributed to it in roughly equal parts. First, service revenue growth, both in fixed and in mobile. Total service revenues grew by 1.5% year-on-year. And second, strong revenues with our fiber joint ventures, mainly due to different phasing in both years. These are near 0 margin.

Year-on-year growth in EBITDA at 2.5% was back at a normal run rate after an unusually weak third quarter. As mentioned, both fixed and mobile service revenues improved sequentially this quarter. In fixed, this quarter, the improvement was mainly the result of easier comps after a third quarter with very challenging comps. Headlines last year were generally impacted by weaker-than-expected broadband and B2B fixed line revenues.

In mobile, the 2.5% year-on-year service growth is a continuation of our ongoing strong performance that we have seen consistently throughout the years.

And here, we can go a little bit deeper into mobile. You can see consistent strength in our mobile subscriber growth. I'm particularly happy that the 282,000 net adds we achieved in Q4 2025 are higher than 261,000 that we had achieved a year earlier. Our propositions continue to resonate well with our customers, both business and residential. Our network leadership remains undisputed and we are extending it with our ongoing network modernization program, our NEMO program, as we call it internally.

We have successfully addressed growing data demand with well-designed unlimited propositions and investments and our unlimited propositions we have recently updated in a more-for-more move that we did in February 2026. Our customer segmentation is effective. We're growing in B2B. We're going in B2C with our main brand and also Congstar, it's contributing at a steady pace. We remain comfortable with our CMD guidance of 2% to 2.5% mobile service revenue growth in the 2023-'27 period, having delivered growth at the top end of this range in the first 2 years.

If we go now into fixed line, we are pleased that our broadband net adds stabilized last quarter. As Tim already mentioned, we are back to a slightly positive number there. The stabilization is a result of multiple measures taken during last year, including an improved market segmentation, a relentless focus on operations, both on acquisition and customer retention plus steady acceleration in fiber connections, and it was achieved despite a front book price increase that we did in October and the reduction of promotional months from 6 to 3 that we did earlier in the year in April.

Before I go into fiber, let's look at our good progress on TV. We added over 100,000 new triple-play TV customers in 2025. This comes after a little over 300,000 in 2024, the year when we had the rights for the European Championship. With that, we added almost 400,000 new triple play TV customers since 2023. In addition to this, we added around 200,000 new OTT TV customers in 2025, almost half of it, 80,000, in the fourth quarter. With that, we added around 0.5 million OTT TV customers since 2023 on top of the 400,000 triple play TV customers I mentioned earlier. So this is nearly 1 million new TV customers in 2 years.

Here, we are the attacker. We are already the fastest-growing pay-TV provider in the market and our TV attach rate to broadband shows that there's additional potential for growth.

If we move to the next page, and we talk about broadband, this quarter, we added 164,000 -- that's okay. This quarter, we added 164,000 fiber customers, our best ever quarter, I want to repeat it, our best ever quarter, and our fiber penetration reached 16.4%. So that's an increase of 11% on our fiber penetration. I can assure you, this remains a key area of focus, maybe even our #1 area of focus, as shown on the following page.

For all of us, it is all hands on deck when it comes to scaling our fiber customers and monetizing the fiber network. In 2025, as mentioned, we increased the fiber footprint by 2.5 million. We had promised that. We remain well on track for our stated 2027 target of around 17.5 million homes passed. But as I said, more important, our fiber customer numbers increased by almost 600,000 as we work towards the run rate of 1 million in 2027.

As we announced with our third quarter results to support this goal, we will further step up our fiber investments funded by efficiencies, AI is helping us there, budget reallocations and the federal tax relief. We are increasing our focus on single dwelling units, on SDUs. We are going more into less dense areas into rural areas. That's where the action is. That's where we're going. Within MDUs, we are increasing our focus on connections. And therefore as the name of the game is, buildings prepared, but not only preparing the building, connecting the entire building. We call it [indiscernible] in German or full build-out in English, doing the Homes Connect and doing the homes activated homes activated paying broadband customers is the KPI in Germany.

On top of these infra measures, we are also stepping up our fiber distribution in our channels, and we are seeing positive early results.

Finally, on fixed line, let's look at our access revenues. While broadband net adds improved last quarter, access revenue trends remain impacted by last year volume losses. Retail broadband revenue growth slowed to 1.6% last quarter. This was driven by volume losses, while ARPA momentum remained positive, especially in B2C. We see last quarter's growth rate as the low point. B2C ARPA was up 3.4% year-on-year, driven by speed upselling and disciplined pricing. We reduced, as I said before, the promotional period from 6 to 3 months in April. In October, we raised our broadband front book prices by EUR 1 a month. And now a few weeks ago, we started to raise the back book prices for some of our older cohorts in broadband for EUR 2 a month.

In my view, this price increases are long due as broadband was one of the few consumer categories in Germany to see prices stable or even go down over the past few years of very high inflation. More pricing discipline is needed to fund the massive investments required to build the German digital infrastructure of the future. While our price increases may impact volumes overall, we expect various measures to stabilize and improve broadband revenue trends again this year.

In sum, we remain committed to our CMD guidance growth of 3% to 4%. But of course, from today's perspective is this looks challenging. Wholesale revenues improved sequentially. Here, ARPA momentum continues to offset the ongoing volume losses. ARPA momentum will continue to benefit from speed up selling in our growing fiber footprint. However, and please keep in mind that, from the second quarter 2026, the annual price increases for lower NDSL tariffs we agreed with our partners in 2021 will roll over.

Overall, the 2023-2027 guidance period, we expect to deliver the stable wholesale access revenues that we promised at the 2024 CMD.

Before we get to the financial outlook, let's spend a little bit more time on our priorities for 2026. I already spoke about our industry-leading fiber build where we are stepping up further. Clearly, here, the priority is to keep accelerating our fiber customer growth towards the 1 million target in 2027, I am confident we will deliver this. This will help us both, of course, on the volume and on the value side.

Another key focus is to take our digital and AI transformation to the next level. When it comes to leveraging AI for transformation, I believe that there is more potential for efficiency gains than previously thought. I gave some examples, but 10% compounded call reduction per year has a massive efficiency impact, for example. Especially in the current competitive German market, an environment, I see cost and efficiencies as an absolute must end as a hedge against top line headwinds. As a management team, we are committed to capture them.

In 2026, we are working on the full implementation of the measures introduced last year while we have a strong pipeline of further use cases.

Finally, on the topic of differentiation and market leadership, which is the core of our strength in Germany. We are constantly extending our mobile network leadership through our market-leading network modernization program. We are translating this to our best network campaign into an even stronger brand leadership. Another priority is to evolve our Magenta up into the central operating system for customer interactions along the lines of what you are seeing from T-Mobile U.S. Here, we copy with pride from our colleagues in the U.S. And as part of this, we aim for 70% of mobile prolongations and additional SIMs to be done through the app.

In B2B, we want to extend our differentiation with secure networks, market-leading cloud, IoT, cyber and AI propositions, the big 5, as my friend Ferri calls them, and talking about Ferri, I'm deeply impressed about the resources and capabilities of the systems here in Germany. And I think there is significant potential to capture even more value from increasing our collaboration, and that is exactly what we will do with Ferri.

Now coming to the last page and our financial outlook. On the service revenue side, we are currently tracking below our ambitious CMD target while mobile is tracking in line, weaker fixed service revenues are awaiting, sorry. The weaker-than-expected fixed service revenues result from 2025 broadband customer losses, as I said, and a weaker-than-expected B2B performance. In 2026, we are expecting overall similar total service revenue growth as in 2025.

On the EBITDA side, we expect a better trend in 2026 and in 2025 and a return to a more normal year-on-year increase. This improvement will be supported by the rollover of elevated 2025 energy and wage cost headwinds and by the AI-enabled digitization and efficiencies that I mentioned earlier. We continue to strive for our CMD 2024 EBITDA CAGR of 2.5% to 3%. But given the weaker growth in 2025, we now expect to be at the lower end of that range.

With that, I hand over to someone with whom I have worked closely in Europe over the last couple of years, Dominique, to talk about the European segment.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Rodrigo. And moving to the -- to our European segment. I'm really happy to confirm that we continued our success story once again in 2025. So I will start with sharing a few highlights along our main strategic pillars: Growth, transformation and scale and what we call winder hearts.

On growth, we achieved strong service revenue growth of 3.9% in 2025, which was driven both by B2C and B2B. This success is based on our network leadership, further progress with fixed mobile convergence and strong B2B growth with mainly a lot of ICT services. We have added 1.1 million fiber homes in 2025, bringing our FTTH number to 11.3 million homes with an average utilization rate of 36%. And in 5G, our 5G coverage has reached 92% by the end of 2025.

Looking at transformation and scale, we are proud of our 73% app penetration and growing chat share. Our transformation towards a more digital sales and service is progressing well. We are also driving AI for network automation, energy savings and improved customer experience. And we have made good progress with scaling platforms across all the countries, developing center of excellence in the B2B area and deploying a common network operating model.

On the last category, Win The Hearts, we are operated in TRIM customer satisfaction in almost all our markets, both in B2C and B2B. We have 9 million of our customers who signed up to Magenta Moments and about 45% are actively using it every month. And next to our customer focus, we are proud to have very high employee satisfaction across all our countries.

So this success translates into a strong financial performance. In Q4, we delivered another excellent quarter, and this is 32 consecutive quarter of organic EBITDA growth. So 8 years in a row where we have been growing every single quarter. I think we can be very proud of that. So organic Q4 revenue growth was 3.5%. Service revenue growth was 4.6%, and this was helped by strong B2B IT service revenue, mainly strong growth in Greece. This brought full year service revenue growth to 3.9%. Our growth was strong in B2C and B2B, and it remains underpinned by continued strong growth in customer numbers.

On EBITDA, EBITDA growth slightly slowed in the last quarter but remained strong at 3.8% year-on-year, and we ended the year with a strong 5.4% EBITDA growth. The slight sequential slowdown reflects the phaseout of previous price increases and the phasing of various one-timers.

Our European commercial performance remains consistently strong, and it accelerated in all relevant product categories last quarter. You can see here the last quarter on all the products in a very high Magenta bar. All net calls are contributing, and I would like to single out Poland with doing particularly well in 2025.

To continue our success story in 2026, there are several priorities that I would now like to quickly highlight. On growth, we will maintain our strong pace in building the best network. We will add more than 1 million fiber homes in 2026, while keeping utilization high. We will push to reach 95% 5G coverage. To continue our growth in our core business, we will double down on delivering the best home experience to our customers and further enhance it with smart features around home control and security.

At the same time, we will accelerate growth in new business area beyond core. We will leverage Magenta Moments in B2C by launching new propositions like gifting, travel and dining. This will reinforce customer engagement towards the T brand and you can already see the gifting platform live in Czech since last month. We will double down in B2B on monetizing AI and also leveraging digital sovereignity.

On transformation and scale, we will push for even more transactions in our digital channels, aiming for more than 30% e-sales shares and up to 50% of all mobile prolongations and tariff changes on digital. We will step up the AI adoption in sales and services including in call center and shops through AI-assisted transactions. We will leverage AI to offer more hyper personalized and contextualized experience and products to our customers. And we will continue to further simplify and retire our legacy system for more efficiency gains. All of this will not only result in better experience for our customer, but also help us to further reduce our IDC to service revenue ratio.

Win the Hearts for us is Win The Heart of our customers and win the heart of our employees. Going forward, we will build towards a next-gen customer experience, which will be centered around the Magenta app. We will further drive customer engagement with Magenta Moments and aim to reach 10 million registered numbers already by year-end 2026. And we will continuously double down on improving our customer experience across all domains.

Next to our customer focus, we will keep investing into our employees. We will push towards becoming top 5 employers in telco and ICT as we want to attract the best talent in the market with a strong focus on future skills like AI. All of these actions will contribute to securing our #1 position in TRIM.

When we now come to our last slide and how do we track towards CMD target, I think we can say that we are very well on track for our stated CMD targets. Our service revenue and EBITDA growth in the first 2 years were each well ahead of our CMD targets. In 2026, we expect further growth in service revenues and an increase in EBITDA to EUR 4.8 billion. We expect underlying EBITDA growth north of the 3% range, close to what we delivered in 2025 adjusted for the tailwind from the end of the Hungarian telco tax.

So you see we are still very optimistic to continue on our strong growth trajectory for Europe in the years to come. I will now hand over to Ferri, who will take you through the story for T-Systems. Thank you.

Thank you, Dominique. Compliments to great results. T Systems are learning from you. Let's have a look. T Systems had another good year. Our order inflow was up 5%. Our customer satisfaction was on an all-time high of 99% TRIM. Our 3% organic revenue growth was broad-based and ahead of market. We delivered 14.4% EBITDA AL growth, Tim mentioned that, supported by revenue growth and ongoing efficiency gains.

As promised, we achieved a positive and growing cash contribution. In 2026, we expect healthy order flow and revenue growth to continue and the first 2 months confirmed that. On the EBITDA AL front, we expect more modest growth in '26, reflecting investment into future growth, including in sovereign cloud and artificial intelligence. I will come to that. That said, across the board, we remain very well on track for our stated CMD targets.

In 2026, we want to further build on our achievements. First, we want to accelerate our growth with AI. We already have moved -- have more than 1,500 AI experts and almost 1,500 AI and data projects are underway or completed. Our AI-related revenues are ahead of plan, and we now aim for EUR 200 million in 2026 and together with our [indiscernible] of TDG and of Europe, we are well on our plan for the EUR 700 million plus that we committed at CMD.

Second, we want to leverage our fully sovereign cloud. We are since 20 years in the cloud business with more than 7,000 enterprise customers. Analysts rate us as European #1 provider of private cloud and sovereign cloud infrastructure service as well. Our sovereign cloud has functionality in pricing that is competitive with the hyperscalers.

In '26, we want to increase our T-Cloud public revenues by about 20% to over EUR 200 million, having built on aligned go-to-market with Rodrigo's team in Germany in One T Cloud tribe. Another priority for 2026 is to step up the cross-sell of cloud into digital and vice versa, so into our base.

Third point, we want to further strengthen our focus on verticals, especially public and health. And our newly established defense vertical, here, we aim for more than EUR 100 million of revenues. Drone will be a major topic of that. Finally, we want to further strengthen our productivity throughout an AI first strategy and drive further productivity gains in cloud and digital. We also want to deepen our collaboration with the other B2B segments in the group and strengthen our position as their production machine and we did just sign this week in alignment with T-Mobile U.S.

Next page, please. One key enabler, which by the way, shows the power of T and the Power of One Team is our industry Icloud, Deutsche's first and largest. It singlehandedly increases Germany's current AI compute power by 15%. We built this cloud together with NVIDIA and other partners from idea to launch in less than 6 months. With this factory, we can provide the complete AI stack for our customers from connectivity through data center and operations, cloud and compute security platform to AI apps, everything that an industrial or public customer needs.

You can see some of the use cases on this page, and we are seeing strong initial demand from clients, and specifically, they use it for applications like digital twins, research, predictive manner for LLMs such as the European LLM Sofie, that we did together with the University and. Additional demand from Signature clients is excellent and we will expand if we see the market request. This project is a good example how T can impact the digital market as One team, and we are proud to be part of that.

With that, I hand over to Christian, who will complete today's presentation.

Thanks, Ferri, and last in line and short in time, so for the sake of completeness, let me go quickly to the T-Mobile U.S. Q4 results, and you know there was a comprehensive report on their results on Feb 11.

So for the first time, we had U.S. seller in there for the full quarter that led to a service revenue growth of 10.5% and a postpaid revenue growth of almost 14%, and everything was driven by both volume and ARPA. The core EBITDA according to U.S. GAAP grew by 6.8%.

If I'm going to the next page, you see, despite a very competitive environment, the fourth quarter growth was again very strong and was even higher than the previous year. The net additions on postpaid were EUR 2.4 million and the best ever, which we had and post paid phone net adds were the best fourth quarter since the Sprint merger, despite the effect that we had an increased churn.

For the full year, T-Mobile delivered almost 8 million postpaid net adds, of which 3.3 million were postpaid phone net adds. That will conclude my operational review because everything has been said on Feb 11.

Let's move over to the financials for the full year. So what you see is we have an impact on several dimensions. One is obviously the weaker U.S. dollars, which is obviously hitting revenues, EBITDA, but also net profit. We have T-Mobile's M&A activities. The largest one is obviously USC, but don't forget, there were 4 other transactions which happened in the last year, which was Bliss, [indiscernible] and the 2 fiber joint ventures. And as always, we always have some phasing.

So bottom line, what you see in '25, we delivered what we promised in the last guidance, and we slightly exceeded this. And on a year-on-year development on this chart, I just want to highlight one thing on net profit. You see there is a negative development of 14%. This is very much driven by the impairment reversals, which we have faced in the year 2024, related to U.S. spectrum, which was more than USD 2.5 billion GD Towers and the German fiber JVs Glasses.

On the next page, you see the free cash flow development for the full year. All the quality results are part of the appendix. There's nothing surprising on the free cash flow bridge. You see there's obviously a contribution from cash flow from operations. We had an increase, which was planned on the CapEx by EUR 900 million, of which roughly 70% can be attributed to the U.S. And obviously, the overall free cash flow development was impacted by a weaker dollar.

On the -- on the net profit, you see that the EBITDA grew by EUR 1.1 billion. If you adjust for the ForEx relative to the previous year, that number would have been higher by EUR 1.4 billion. And we had a weaker financial result that was driven by two effects. One is obviously higher interest expenses, and the other one was losses related to the fiber joint ventures in the U.S.

Let's go over to the net debt bridge. You see that we had a slight decrease in the net debt bridge despite the fact that we had M&A activities of close to EUR 9.5 billion and a very juicy shareholder remuneration, which you see with comprising dividends, share buybacks in the U.S., but also share buyback on our side.

So bottom line, what you see is that on the leverage, I'm pretty happy with the developments since '23, so that we're moving down leverage on a consistent basis. Obviously, the dollar helped.

So moving to a review how do we stand against our ESG targets and apologies for the busy chart, but you may remember what I said at the Sustainability Day in 2022. We want to treat the ESG KPIs in the same manner as we're treating our financial KPIs, and therefore, you see a lot of numbers. So if I'm flashing out two things where we're basically tracking behind target. One is the green PPAs. Our target is 50% overall. And the other one is the share of female executives.

Let me dwell on the PPAs. So actually, we met the 50% target here in Germany beginning of January of this year. But in Europe, we are trailing behind this. And this is simply for the sake of we don't find any attractive green PPA which makes sense from a financial point of view. And I'm not chasing a target if it doesn't make sense from a financial point of view and from an ESG point of view.

So that basically completes my review for the full year of '25 and hand it over to Tim.

Thank you, Christian. I think before we are going to this summary here slide, I would say, let's have the Q&A with Hannes first.

Okay, Tim. So then I'll start straight on with the Q&A. [Operator Instructions] I think the first question is from Carl at Citi. Carl?

That's great. Thanks very much, Hannes. It's 1 question, but in kind of a few parts about German service revenue trends going forward. And Rodrigo, just picking up on your comment that I think you said in your slides that you expect similar total service revenue growth in 2026 to 2025. You've just done 1.5% in Q4 and 1.1% for the full year. But that 1.1% is partially dragged down by Q3 due to the difficult comps that you had in that period. Looking forward, without IT business phasing drags going forward or that Q3 year-on-year comparative drag, why wouldn't we see a modest improvement? I think consensus is going for 1.3%? The only thing I can think of is the wholesale price increase annualization in Q2 and how material is that?

And then on the positive side, how much of the broadband price increases are you expecting to keep on a net basis? And are you seeing any evidence of the public sector revenues actually coming back in the IT business phase?

Sure. So let me go through each of the points. In terms of the service revenue for 2026, let's say, we see a similar level to what we saw for the year in 2025. On the broadband side, look, we just did the price increase and the communication to the base a couple of weeks ago. So I think it's too early to tell on what is the impact of these moves. I would say that the early results and what we're seeing is positive. It's better than what we had planned. But of course, I want to be cautious on this one and wait a little bit more to see the outcome.

If it continues to play out like we have seen in the last couple of weeks, we might have a little bit of an upside there because this is ultimately a trade-off between volume and value. The value is guaranteed. And on the volume, there's a little bit of a question mark on what would be the impact. But what we have seen so far in the last couple of weeks is encouraging.

On Wholesale, as I mentioned, we are very confident to deliver on the stable guidance we gave for CMD time period. But please don't forget that the price increases that we negotiated with our wholesale partners back in 2021 will roll over from Q2. So in that sense, we expect to be stable for the time period of the CMD commitment. But probably, it was, let's say, more pulled forward from the profile. I hope I answered your question with that one. I don't know if I left anything.

Yes, there was a question about the public sector.

Yes. Yes. So thank you, yes. On public sector, well, finally, there is a budget approved that came in at the end of last year. We are now starting to see also increased momentum on order entry. But as you know, in public sector, there is a time lag between the order entry and when the revenues materialize. For 2026 I'm increasingly confident on seeing the positive momentum on the order entry. I think for the -- that positive momentum to convert into revenues, we're probably thinking more of Q4 and then 2027.

So first of all, the thing that I can add is that, again, like in cloud, DDG and we are working closely together, we have 1 team. And that has shown good effect. So we see in the moment that in elements like the [indiscernible] for digital and so on so forth, we are making good progress. So on the enterprise side in public, that's good, where we now step in, in the next step, Rodrigo and I is going also in the mid-market of the public sector. That's the next step to come.

Excellent. And with that, we move on to the next question from Polo at UBS. Polo?

I've just got two questions. The first question is for Rodrigo in terms of German fiber. So you've built a fiber footprint of 12.6 million homes and of that roughly 8 million covers MDUs but fiber take-up and MDU areas, seems to be less than 10%. So can you talk about why the take-up in MDU areas has been so low? And how do you expect this to evolve going forward? And can you maybe comment on pending changes to legislation that could potentially make it easier for DT to access MDUs and deploy fiber. So how much of a game changer would that be?

The second question is really just at the group level in terms of use of cash. Can you talk through why you're not participating in the buyback? And how did you weigh up buying back more stock at the DT level versus increasing your stake in T-MS? I'm just asking the question because group leverage, including or excluding leases, sorry, is 2.2x. So do you potentially think that this is on the low side?

Sure. I start with the fiber question. Indeed, you got your numbers right from the 12.6 million homes that we have. A big part of it is in covers MDUs. We announced at the end of last year a shift in our strategy, which has a couple of elements. On the one hand, we will start building more in rural and suburban areas. So our share of SDUs will increase. In our SDU footprint, we are already above 30% penetration. This is a shift that we already started. We are well into implementation, and we're starting to see the results of that.

And when it comes to MDUs, we are going for what we call full build-out or [indiscernible] in Germany, which means in the past, when we used to get into a building, we would enter the building and we would connect the customer that made an order. And if a second or third order came later, we would come back and make those installations at a later point in time. What [indiscernible] means is the first time we enter the building, we will connect the entire building. We are starting to scale up the capabilities to do this. And this gives us, of course, a significant way then to scale and to sell to that base because every customer can then connect to fiber in a couple of seconds.

So we expect to get momentum from that. On top of the [indiscernible], we are scaling sales channels. Most of our shops are in urban areas, so we are building a sales force of out of the shops that will go into the street. By the end of the year, it will be roughly 250 employees that will go into the streets that know the neighborhood, they know the customers, and that will help us also ramp up the commercialization. We already started in several of our shops with very encouraging results. We are also scaling channels, sales channels in our field services. Every day, we have 6,000 to 7,000 technicians who go to the homes of our customers.

What we have started now is these technicians create a lead. The customer calls immediately a call center where we do a sale. And just to give you an order of magnitude, we are making 4,000 of these leads every week now. It is scaling and the conversion rate is 50%, so you can do the math of what this means in terms of sales channel power.

Finally, I think you were spot on. There is anyway a structural issue in Germany, which is to access the MDUs. It is not easy to access the MDUs. The cable operators try to protect in many cases that. We saw last year coming from the Ministry, a proposal that I believe goes in the right direction in giving us increased rights to access the MDUs, but now we are waiting for it to -- let's turn into -- for it to turn into reality. It hasn't come out yet, the proposal. We're waiting for it but I believe it is very important that we get -- that we make it easier for fiber builders to get access to the buildings.

In any case, and I want to emphasize this, we're seeing really nice take-up in our fiber momentum. Q4 '25 was our best quarter ever in terms of fiber connections. We had a very good start into 2026. It's all about buildings prepared, [indiscernible] homes connect and homes activated. We look at these KPIs daily. I can tell you, we see them scaling and so I'm confident that we will continue scaling and we will get to the 1 million ambition we put ourselves for 2027.

So on the usage of the surplus, Polo, I think I'm repeating myself a bit. Look, we've always looked -- we're always looking on two dimensions. One is, what is strengthening our strategic position? And the second one is, where do you have the higher financial accretion? And I think we have no doubt that buying back DT shares still has a higher accretion relative to the U.S., but it has come down, especially as the share price was at $185. Secondly, what we said is, on the surface, we felt $185 looks cheap to be honest. And this is why we also said, in case this stays the same, we will take the flexibility and then actually increase from our side because we believe the underlying value of T-Mobile US is higher than USD 185, and you've seen that. The share price has developed quite nicely.

And thirdly, increasing the U.S. share gives you more flexibility than buying back DT shares because that money is out of the door. In case we need some money, we can also kind of decrease the shareholding in the U.S. So from this perspective, I think we're -- I'm feeling completely fine with the direction of travel, which we're having right now. I think the share price has stabilized. We still have the flexibility to go along in the U.S. and we want to go up with our shareholding because this is the best market we are operating in by far.

Thank you, Christian. And with that, let's move on to Josh at BNP Paribas, please.

Two questions from my side. The first is going back to the slide, I think it's Slide 14 from Rodrigo around AI usage. A lot of the AI uses you're talking about here are about deflecting calls and solving negative customer service issues. So I wanted to understand whether you're also seeing any upside from targeted advertising, creating tariffs and upselling customers that way? And I guess, the catalyst was asking the question is we saw this morning from Freenet that one of your M&A partners appears to be pulling back on third-party sales channels, which typically did that in the past. This is saving that party probably quite a bit of money. And I wondered if this that Deutsche Telekom is also looking at doing more in-house than through third parties as well going forward?

And then the second question is just around satellite technology and the way you see the risks and the opportunities. We've seen a lot of discussion about the Starlink risk in the U.S., perhaps a bit lesser in Europe. But when you're thinking about the potential impact of Starlink both from a fixed broadband and also a direct to mobile service, how do you think that will impact in some of your European markets? And specifically, how does it factor into your thinking around the rural fiber-to-the-home rollout, which you articulated during the call?

Sure. I can start. So I mean if you look at our cost base, we have the two biggest buckets in sales and service and in, let's say, what we call the technique, which is all the operations around building and operating the networks. And we are applying AI in both areas with a lot of success. I focus quite a lot on the sales and service area, but I could spend the same time explaining the use cases that we are applying with a lot of success on the technical side. By the way, these are the savings and the efficiencies that are allowing us to increase our fiber investments into Germany.

By the end of the year, we expect to reach almost 100% of, for example, site supervision of fiber builds, via AI and that is generating for us a lot of efficiencies. On the use of AI, Dominique will complement because this is something that, of course, we're driving in Germany, but that we are driving as a group. We call it consumer AI and how to monetize AI, including advertising. The one thing I can tell you is I'm personally getting more and more excited about the role we as telcos have to play in the AI space when it comes to consumers.

We started this journey a couple of years ago by bringing AI into our phones, into the T phone by bringing AI propositions to our customers. Recently, [indiscernible] in the U.S. announced how we are now bringing AI capabilities into the network. And why am I optimistic about this one is because we're bringing AI closer and closer to the core of what our business is, which is the network, not only AI, but also security. Dominique, do you want to complement because this is a group thing we're doing?

Yes. No, no, I'm happy to complement. We use AI a lot. I think on the network side, as Rodrigo said, it was a lot to make sure that we reduce the energy consumption that we have also a customer-driven network rollout. So this is probably the first place where we use AI in the network. Next to that, we use it a lot in our sales and services. We have one bot, which is about answering customer. We go to more and more one voice element where we have also an AI voice answering calls of customers. But your question is also very valid. Every -- we have been working really hard over the last 1 to 2 years to bring more and more our customer data accessible to really use AI and to drive targeted and personalized not so much advertising but very much experiences, products, upsell, cross-sell activities to our customer base.

We have now more than 100 use cases that we have done in all countries, all the European countries and Germany. And we really see a much higher conversion rate when we use this personalized and targeted instrument to reach out to customers. We see lower churn. We see more customer value management. So I think this is also a very promising part where we use AI. Next to that, we also try to use -- to democratize AI towards the customer. And that's more when we talk about this Magenta AI, where we did a deal with Perplexity and Magenta Moments, we have brought perplexity to all our customers.

That was also for us a way not so much to use it for us to reduce our cost base or to improve customer service on 7 days a week, 24 hours but also to bring it and to democratize it to customers so that we can be seen as a brand that is really innovative and further increase customer engagement. On B2B, we use it a lot. We are trying to monetize AI. We have a lot of activities. Ferri can talk about it for Germany. We have very good examples in Hungary, in Czech, where we have already developed a very sophisticated AI tool for call center of banks for fraud detections for our customers. So I think there as well, we are on a good path to start to monetize AI in the B2B area. But perhaps, Ferri, you want to add anything on that one?

No, I think I picked it up first time in my presentation altogether on the B2B side, we aim towards the CMD target of almost 1 million. We are here ahead of plan that's good, everybody contributing. More or less, you can say we help customers automizing their business throughout AI. And you mentioned some of the use cases I could go on, on and on. But I think it's important to see we attack AI on the consumer and also on the B2B side concretely with customers.

And maybe just to finish with your question on MVNO partner. Indeed, if you look at the German market and the pricing we see in some of these online indirect channels, I've been, I think, vocal about it. It doesn't look rational behavior. However, it's always something that you need to manage careful because if other players are investing into these channels. you need to be careful on giving them space there.

However, and I want to emphasize this, if you look at our pricing in these indirect channels over the last 12 months, you will see very clearly that we are going in a similar direction. I think some of the pricings we had for broadband, for example, in indirect channels 12 months ago were not rational and that situation has been improving quite significantly.

On the satellite question, I think we can answer that one together. For Germany, I think recently, the Bundesnet again to published the numbers. I think Starlink has slightly north of 100,000 customers in Germany. That number, I think, was around 80,000 one year ago. So there seems to be a play, but it seems to be more of a niche play in the case of Germany because we have a very, very good mobile coverage of north of 99% for 5G. We have strong fixed networks. And so far, we see in Germany, the play for satellite rather as a niche, let's say, in the few white spots that we have here.

I can perhaps complement on satellite. I think satellite for us is complementary and very often niche, we use it. We have some satellite agreements, for instance, in the B2B area to do some backups which is for business continuity and emergency cases, I think a good way where we partner with them, and we use it. I think also for IoT services, we have some good examples where we have been able to use satellites to promote IoT services across countries.

I would say specifically, if we see more currently where we have some competition from satellite is typically for -- in country like Greece or Croatia, where there are quite a lot of islands. But there, to be honest, we have upped our game with a lot more 5G development or rollout where we are now able to offer fixed wireless access in a lot of those places. And where we have developed fixed wireless access, people really prefer to the fixed wireless access service than the satellite survey.

So have answers where indeed, it takes some time to bring fiber to remote areas in all the islands. We cannot do that in 1 or 2 years. But we have there as well, a very strong mobile network, and we bring C-band and fixed wireless access, which so far has been revealed to be a very strong alternative to satellite growth in those areas.

To summarize the satellite service. The first one, in the fixed broadband side, StarLink is the only player who is really relevant in this play, and they are playing their game alone in these areas. We do not see big cannibalization. We have our own product, which we are using, which is high-speed Internet in the U.S. which is our fixed mobile substitution services, which we offer here. And that is working. This is an adjacent offer in the market, but we have a good kind of terrestial service here as well.

The second one is D2D. So the direct device. I think it provides complementary coverage in underserved areas. That's a good adjacency. I always talked about network of networks. I can imagine that we are including the service into our offerings going forward. This is a good kind of comparative service for Europe. It's a small market niche because the coverage of 5G is very high already. Germany, 99%, just to give you an impression here.

But nevertheless, it might be something which we include in our service. Third one, IoT service, definitely, yes. Look, there we have different providers. We will not put our basket into one offer. We will have different satellite service, which can provide us on the IT side. The third one is on the spectrum side in the U.S., I don't know where these guys are getting spectrum from. They bought own spectrum here in Europe, it's a different case. So therefore, we'll see how they're doing this. I do not, let's say, see us in a role that we are offering MVNO are giving spectrum satellite operators. You know our policy in the past, and we have been very disciplined in this regard. Why should we do this?

In Europe, the situation is that the terrestrial spectrum is protected. So therefore, this spectrum is, by the way, being reauctioned or extended in 2027 when it comes to the satellite services. This is not in our decision. I would expect that the European Commission is extending this for another 3 to 5 years when it comes to spectrum. But to be honest, it is something which is a speculation. You have to ask the political bodies in this regard. And our therestical spectrum is protected. So this is only for therestical service. So we do not expect that satellite offers operators will enter into this space.

So next on, I think, is Ottavio at Bernstein. Ottavio?

My first question would be on German mobile. You had a strong customer intake there. Could you talk a little bit about the intake ARPU? And the reason is that at least 2 market participants have talked about the lower front book pricing working through the base. What is the Deutsche Telekom perspective on this issue?

And if I may, the second question would be a bit more conceptual on AI use for the improvement of internal processes and lower cost. I'm not talking as much about revenue here. The question I have is AI is a technology that is available to all operators, it is not invented by DT. So how would see DT gain a competitive advantage from AI? And more generally, maybe will AI create winners and losers among European telcos? And if yes, by what mechanism would that happen?

Yes. So on the first question on mobile intake ARPU, we are very pleased and very comfortable with the ARPUs at which we are bringing our mobile customers. You can see that in our mobile service revenue growth. We not only had more net adds in Q4, '25 versus '24, but also our mobile service revenue growth was higher in Q4 '25 than it was in '24. Having said that, if I look now at the market as a whole, I do believe that indeed, the German market is quite aggressive at the moment. We've seen a lot of pricing aggressiveness in the market in 2025.

We have recently, a couple of weeks ago, increased the price in our additional SIM cards. So on the second additional SIM card from EUR 10 to EUR 15. We did that in a more for more logic. But nevertheless, it is quite value-accretive move. And I do believe that the German market needs to become more rational on the mobile side. You said it, we are pretty much the only player in this market that is growing revenues and EBITDA. And as a market, I don't think that's a good place to be. I think we had some early positive signals over the last couple of weeks and months that start to go in the right direction. But I think we need to see a little bit more of that into 2026.

We -- our goal is to have a balanced, healthy strategy and growth of volume and value. What that means for us is that on the volume side, to me the red line is at least to get our fair share of net adds in the market. And on top of that, we need to grow our ARPUs because this is a market that doesn't have almost increasing growth at the moment. And in that sense, we understand our role as market leader as an incumbent. And let's see what happens in 2026, but I think at least some of the early signals go in the right direction.

Good. Let me I'll take the question on the AI, which is a bit broader. So first of all, I would like to differentiate between AI usage for consumer and AI usage for B2B. If you look to the consumer side, we at Deutsche Telekom have been 1 of the first that was, by the way, using AI long before the LLM models come up because we understood that using that towards the customer in chatbots we did more than 10 years ago. If you take today a frac Magenta that was based even on very simple AI tools that we further elaborated. What does that mean?

It means, at the end of the day, yes, there is software and there are foundation models that not necessarily come from Europe. But on the other hand side, VS telecom picked those up as a tool very quickly, and we elaborate that on the usage for our customers. So therefore, we have today on the chat bot level, I would say, a very advanced, educated system that, by the way, we can also export to others. Also, and Rodrigo mentioned that, we picked up the opportunity with AI to further drive automation. When we talk about AI in Technik, that's exactly that.

You could say, we could do it also with classical tools such as ServiceNow, et cetera. Yes, with AI you can do it better. So therefore, on the one hand side, AI first, AI and everything is important. That's our philosophy, but also we try to adapt it and we try to adapt it for our use and the customer. On the B2B side, it's another animal, I would say. There, you need to combine it with the pain points of customers, how can -- where are they really using automation? And how can you pick AI tools up to make them being faster, more efficient in doing that?

In that regard, we have the advantage that we are probably one of the providers that deals with the most Fortune customers from Shell to Volkswagen and so on and forth. We work with customers on the automotive side, and we do learn what is their need on automation to build a modern fabric through digital twins. That said, brings us to, for instance, also our chemical pharma customers where we learned what are they doing for their new pipeline, for their research, et cetera. And you can drive it on and on and on.

So in total, we are using more than 25 foundation models across the group. We are using a lot of applications, and we brought it, by the way, also back to that stack I was mentioning in Munich, where we combined the complete stack with our connectivity, security, foundation models and applications. So it's on the one hand side, picking it up quickly, that we do. It's on the other hand side, adapting to customer needs that what we do internally and externally. Tim, you might complement.

Yes. Look, Ottavio, principally you're right, the technology is indeed available for all operators and for all telecom companies are same. By the way, the same is true when it comes to building a network, being it mobile or fixed and everybody can build the components. It's all the supplier based. In principle, the same true for car industries because it's an OEM model and you can buy all the components. And everybody is differentiating in the way how he brings the stuff together.

Now going into the specifics and how I see that as a differentiator going forward, I think the industry specific adaptation is the one which is creating a differentiator. Now think about, let's say, the telco-specific AI models, who has biggest data and then could use the biggest data in the best way. I think companies with scale have an advantage out to small companies when it comes to using the tools and using their learnings, the leverage of AI within the company is bigger for us because we have a bigger cost base, we have a bigger industrial base.

So the moment we have productivity insights, the benefit for us is by scale, by definition, bigger. So that's the third one. The fourth one is the element of trust. The brand who has the biggest trust has the biggest legitimation to bring AI to the customers. That is what we are doing since years to build this T including the data and the AI as a kind of trustworthy brand so that people trust in us. And the success of Perplexity in Germany, by the way, the second biggest market of Perplexity in the world just gives you that our customer is confident in this regard.

And therefore, I think if you have a great trust base, you can easily resell the AI models into your client base as well. The next one is the partnership ecosystem. I can tell you when it comes to the big players of AI, they like to work with the big players because they can scale their products easier than going to all the small players. That is, by the way, even one of the challenges, which I see going forward that the big players have a big advantage out of AI, while the small companies in all industries will suffer from late adaptation of AI.

So I see a lot of differentiation possibilities coming from ethics regulation, coming from the partnership ecosystem, coming from the proprietary data leverage, coming from the telco specific knowledge and the AI models which we can use as a leader in this industry, and we will do everything knowing that the components might be available for all players at the same time. And to be honest, I see us compared to all the other players, and you know I'm very keen on this one. I see us leading in this category in the European landscape at least.

Great. Thanks. And with that, we move on to Andrew at Goldman, please.

So I just wanted to push on two of the areas that have been discussed already at reasonable lengths. I'm very conscious of that. But just on satellite risk and also the AI cost savings side of things. So just on satellites, the answer was really helpful. I just wanted to look forward a bit more, given there's a lot of very grand ambitions in terms of pumping satellites into the sky. And just ask what do you think would have to happen for satellites to shift from being a partner to becoming more of a threat to your business?

Tim, you mentioned MVNO contracts. If they were let in the door, is that letting the wolf in the door if they get an MVNO contract and start to be able to control the customer spectrum allocation that was also mentioned? Is that something that could change that would enable them to become bigger threats? What are the things that you worry about from this perspective, given that all of the satellite operators are talking about basically a tenfold increase in satellites in the sky over the next decade and that could lead to over 100-fold increasing capacity?

And just a follow-up on that one. You touched on it, but are we correct in thinking that the margin, the risk is higher to the U.S. than Europe because as you said, the network geographic coverage is not strong there? And then just second, a much quicker question, just on AI. We've heard about AI cost savings for a number of years now. Obviously, it's taken a bit of a step up, but in previous years, those AI cost savings that telco operators talked about didn't really drop through to the bottom line because they just got competed away. So what makes you confident that they don't get competed away this time?

Tim, I think, again, you mentioned that companies with scale have an advantage and maybe that's the differentiation that means you keep hold of it. But what's really shifting? What are the key factors that make you confident that you can actually hold on to AI cost savings here?

Look, maybe I'm clear on -- I do not want to make that satellite topic so big here. And I think I was very precise on laying out the picture between Europe and the U.S. with regard to the potential threat there. In this regard, to be honest, due to the coverage in Europe, I see the satellite business model more attractive for the U.S. market than I see that for the European market going forward, including, by the way, spectrum availability.

Second, look, if StarLink would be a global service with X and having local MVNOs and he can play a terrestical game because he has to play a terrestical game, it will never be able to digest all the traffic via satellites, even if he pulls out millions of satellites there, he needs a terrestical service. Then he might have a different model, but then he is in our business model and then it's in our economics. So therefore, I don't foresee that right now that this is going to happen, at least from a Deutsche Telekom perspective. And the spectrum availability is something where Europe and the U.S. is different as well.

So I do not want to repeat myself because the more we talk about that when we might be bigger make it. And to be honest, we look at it, I see a potential for this satellite market. but I do not see that as a substitution for our industries just by physics and just by capacity. So that is, let's say, the way I'm looking at it.

On the AI eye side, Andrew, you are spot on. I'm happy, by the way, with the EBITDA AL development in the group. I'm happy with, let's say, how the attempts are with regard to the AI projects, 500 projects in the organization. I see even the benefits on how quickly things get resolved in the company due to AI. But look, I'm a little bit tired about the laziness of my people to reduce their IDCs at specialty headcount. So therefore, you're spot on, we have to push more on that one. I think the EUR 800 million is committed, but I think there should be more, and I'm looking here to the right side of my colleagues because they are running the organizations, and they have to come up with something.

And to be honest, we're working on this one intensively. But I do not want to go today. I promise you. in our AI day, and we will do this in an intense way. We will not only show you one showcase after the next. We will show you how our organization is operating practically and not in the future, but today, and we will show you the productivity gains, which we make in each of the divisions. So which is the impact on the IDC today and going forward? And what is, let's say, the time to market and the other gains we have out of AI and challenge us on this one in this specific session.

And maybe just as an additional piece of information. Of course, you heard T-Mobile at the 11th of February, guiding for their digital AI-related savings, and they guided for $2.7 billion of incremental savings between 2025 and 2027 from such initiatives. So thanks, Andrew. And I think we move on with Mathieu, Mathieu from Barclays.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, now we can hear you.

Okay. I had 2 questions. The first one on TMS. So the guidance, the message for 2026 points to shift towards a more value focus rather than volume to previous years. It seems very sensible. But I wanted to understand what opportunities you have there in terms of the volume. For instance, does the back book versus the front book pricing enables for more back book price increases without a risk of spin down or churn?

And on the front book, are you still well positioned versus your peers and hence, have a bit of pricing power there? So that's the first question.

The second was on the exciting topic of ROCE. So you're guiding ROCE down for 2026. That comes after a decline in 2025. I think last year, you were hoping for a rebound in '26. You now expect that rebound in '27. Now I fully understand that there are nonrecurring elements impact the way you compute ROCE, as you explained in your annual report, but I was wondering, besides the one-off there are other elements that are driving ROCE down in any of the main geographies? And what makes you confident it can increase in 2027?

Mathieu, thank you for the first question. And look, I'm very happy about the developments in the U.S. And for us, pricing power is usually associated with the best network and the best customer experience. And you have seen that 5 out of 6 categories we own in the U.S., and I do not foresee in the short term that we will lose them. In addition, we are always leading in value. So therefore, at the recent update, they highlighted that their back book is lower than Verizon's on ARPA and lower than AT&Ts on ARPU, so both by double digits. So yes, there is always potential for us to do something, and we have not ruled out further rate plan optimizations.

I think Srini was very clear on this one. He said, we are driving the company by value. So therefore, I think he was very crystal clear. To be honest, due to the fact that Srini has laid out a very detailed plan and a very committed plan, which was highly respected and appreciated from the. I would not add something on what he has said. This is now our commitment going forward. We have a great position on this one and everything we will do considering what is the best for our customers and the best for the company.

I would basically add one point which where Srini was very adamant about is that 60% of the customer intake premium plants, whereas the installed base is only on 30% on the premium plans. So that shows you, I think, a very distinct growth platform for ARPA growth in the U.S.

So the second question, as good question. So I think we owe you the question on the reversal. Look, first of all, in last year, we had quite a bit of one-off effects, which were the impairment reversals, which obviously hit NOPAT, where we came in with a very high ROE. We don't see this year. This year, we have some, I would say, negative impacts from the integration, which will also hit NOPAT in a negative way. These are the two things which are popping into my mind, but I think we can follow up on that question, Mathieu, give you a little bit more detailed feedback.

Yes. But I think you were spot on the main factor is the restructuring charges that T-Mobile incurred in relation with the U.S. Cellular integration and also the headcount and network optimization items that they have outlined. So for me, the most important thing is that Deutsche Telekom is in all businesses, earning their capital costs. So that is the most important thing. We are creating added value in this company. And by the way, with an increasing momentum here. I was the inventor of the economic value added, and everybody laughed about me when I did that in was it 2004 or '05, so a very long time ago.

And we're still pursuing this logic within the company, and I'm very happy where we are today that we earn our capital cost that we pay out our dividend out of our earned money that we have this kind of sound financial system, and that is 1 of the principles, the narratives on how we are driving this business here.

Next we move to Paul Sidney from Berenberg, please.

Just building on a couple of questions we've already had. In the German market, I was wondering did the positive net add performance you saw over Q4 '25, give you the confidence to raise prices in Germany in Q1? Or was the decision to raise prices more for more a directed strategic move? Just really trying to get a feel for whether the price moves were independent of the performance or whether one is leading the other.

And then secondly, just building on a previous question on capital allocation. And I know Christian, apologies, you get this question every quarter, but it'd be great to get an update on your capital allocation priorities? And maybe if you could give us a feel for how much unallocated capital there is to allocate over the next few years in terms of a sense of quantum? And maybe is there a potential to accelerate the fiber build? And again, I know you've had those questions many times before, but it would be great to get an update on your thoughts.

Sure. On the first question, I can say it now because now we did it, but we started working on this one more than 9 months ago. And the movements that we were doing on the front book where for us a preparation for the back book move. To me, it was pretty obvious from the beginning that this market needs to get a healthier value development on the broadband side.

As I said, we first took out promotions in April of last year. We then did a front book increase of EUR 1 in October, which allowed us to test price elasticity. And something that we did that probably didn't catch your attention is we did some pilots last year also on a back book to understand elasticities. So this has been prepared for a while. I want to emphasize that we didn't apply the increases to the entire base. We focused on a portion of the base, particularly on those with older tariffs. So we are talking about tariffs that were paying prices before there was a war in Ukraine or before we had a global pandemic.

And still those loyal customers who were on old tariffs are still paying below what are our front book prices. So this shows you on how we were very careful also on taking care of these old customers. We have now a couple of weeks of experience. We're tracking, of course, the churn and the impact of these moves on a daily basis. And as I said before, -- what we're seeing so far in churn is well, well below what we had in the business case, and we keep tracking that very, very carefully. I hope I answered your question.

Okay.

So on the capital allocation. So in principle, what do we say at the Capital Markets Day, we said either share buyback on the DT side or increased shareholding or we may have some strategic flexibility for other purposes. And bear in mind, we just established '25, for example, the AI Giga factory, which wasn't planned, but we basically used the potential which we have on the balance sheet in order to fund this.

Look, on your question, why now T-Mobile U.S., I think I answered that question because on the services that looked cheap as we made that announcement. And for 2026, there's not a lot of wiggle room because we have the EUR 2 billion on the DT side. We have 50% of the share buyback in the U.S., which is roughly USD 5 billion. We have -- we are tracking now towards 53%. And on the fiber build, whether we accelerate this, I think we announced it in Q3 that we accelerate the fiber investments by EUR 200 million in Germany by reallocating budgets but also trying to get better efficiency.

And the third one is by using the surplus, which we're getting from the tax relief here in Germany in order to refinance or and reinvest into the fiber build-out. So, so far, I think I'm fine. And I want to see that the strategy is holding water. What Rodrigo just said, especially on the MDU space that we get a higher utilization if we go for a full build-out because we don't want to build out if there is no demand. And I think this needs to be proven, and then we continue with that going forward.

And next up is James at New Street, James?

So I have two questions, please. So the first one was about line losses for Rodrigo, but not your retail line losses but your wholesale line losses. Those have been around EUR 400,000 a year for the last 3 years or so. How do you see that trend going forward? I mean on one hand, do you see that some of your wholesale players could move more lines to other alt nets or because old net build is slowing, actually, the rate of those losses might actually slow from here?

And then the second question, maybe one for Tim. But as the kind of part of the leading consortium on the AI Giga factories in Europe in the largest country in Europe, I presume you're kind of front runner to be successful in the bid for an AI Giga factory. So I think I asked about this 3 months ago, but given this is moving at speed. I was just wondering if you could give an update on any further developments on that particular size of maybe your equity contribution if you were to be successful and what new visibility you have, if any, on the revenue models that could underpin the AI Giga factories?

Hi, James. So I'm going to answer your question on the wholesale side. Still, I'm going to make a comment on retail, which is we see the -- I think, the last time we talked, I told you my estimation is that this market as a whole, the German market as a whole is making some 200,000 to 250,000 net adds per year and that the altnets are taking some 500. If I look into the future, I think those 200 will probably become rather 100. And on the altnets, we see those 500 stable, maybe coming down, but not well below 400. So there you have your math.

On the retail side, in the mid and long term, we feel confident to, as I said before, keep our fair share of retail net adds. On the wholesale, it's a little bit of a different story. Now when you correctly say, we have been seeing a similar trend over the last couple of years. Nevertheless, you need to double-click on that one and the average because when you look into our wholesale losses, there is an increasing portion of that, which is related to our JVs. So in our JVs, which are off-balance sheet vehicles, you see the retail net adds that we make on those JVs in our P&L and the numbers that we present, but you do not see the wholesale net adds that those JVs make on which we 50%, let's say, of the economics we keep because those wholesale net adds are in the -- are kept in the JVs.

So -- and of course, as we are scaling our JVs and by the way, we are scaling them successfully, we are on track to our expectations on the JVs. This weighs on our wholesale numbers. If you take this out, I would say that the trend that we see on wholesale broadband losses is stable and by stable, I mean along the lines of what we have seen in the last couple of years. The reason for that is because a lot of the overbuild we had and a lot of the exposure we have on the wholesale side is exactly in those rural areas. And in that long tail where we have been overbuilt and we have not yet deployed fiber infrastructure.

Now looking into the future, there is, of course, a path to, let's say, a rebound and increase our infrastructure share, including wholesale because we're seeing increasing signals of market consolidation coming up in the market. We also have 50-plus cooperations and growing. And so I believe that over the coming years, we would be part of that consolidation that there's going to be in the market and that is going to help us regain the infrastructure share that we are, at the moment, losing on the wholesale side.

Yes. Look, James, I hope that once you get out of your home office whenever you see where your under your roof and there's no painting nothing, I hope you can still escape there. Anyway I was joking. Let me go for your question with regard to the AI Giga factory. And look, we remain actively involved into the consortium discussions, and we're doing a lot of preparatory work here. However, the project is still subject to a lot of, let's say, alignment, funding clarity and industrial governance and structure, which is laying in front of us. Let me maybe frame the first thing.

On the industry side, we are very close and aligned with the Schwartz IT Group. So you will not see a very competitive landscape fighting for, let's say, different RFQs here from the German angle. The big guys are aligned, and we are joining forces in this regard. So the second thing is with regard to locations, we have alternative locations where we can build it under reasonable terms. That's a discussion which is ongoing. So that's not an obstacle and a problem.

The problem starts first with the unknown conditions of this subsidization coming from Europe. And by the way, this is affecting all European applications because it's very unclear what the GPU price per hour is going to be under which the European Union is willing to contribute volumes into these Giga factories. We have heard numbers which are under the price for the GPUs, to be honest, and it will never work because nobody would consider that. And then we heard as well that these guys might only commit for 2 years.

And I can tell you, nobody will get a financing for an investment like this if you only have a commitment for 2 years on the volumes which are coming from the governmental services. There has to be a 35% utilization at least, which was the original commitment from Europe and the member states. I do not see at that point in time how they're getting their act together with regard to the volumes.

And the last topic, which is a very specific German issue is the energy price. You're aware that the energy prices for Germany are not that favorable compared to France or to the northern countries. So therefore, even there is a discussion which has taken place here in Germany. Now I can tell you, you know our principle here. We are not making bad deals. And to be honest, I don't need to build a Giga factory. We are willing to build a Giga factory if it makes commercially sense and we have a good utilization for that one.

But I -- my statement in the press this morning was Deutsche Telekom doesn't need it. Germany needs it. And if Germany wants to have a kind of sovereignty with regard to their data use and their data handling, they have to get their act together and we are the facilitator. We are the enabler for this factory here on the -- in the landscape of Germany. So that is, let's say, the status quo. I do not know whether we will apply. I do not know the framework for this RFP at that point in time. And therefore, we cannot say what we're doing, but I can promise you one thing. We will only do that if we have a kind of a clear financing in place with the business case, which is paying off.

Now with regards to the industry AI cloud, these are the 10,000 GPUs. We made a step forward, independent from this giga factory and like to hand over to the mother of this factory, which is Ferri, and he will give you a very short insight about the utilization, about where we are and the promising outlook which we see here.

There are also a lot of fathers, including yourself. I think you put it very clear under which circumstances we would go for the Giga factory, but we did say we don't wait for that. There is a need for companies like Siemens and others and they have a demand, and that's why we created in Munich this first open, secure and Saven AI fabric. If you would ask me now what's at the moment demand, we can say we are ahead of the business plan. We see that almost utilization around 42 even more so is given. That shows there is demand and alongside this demand, we can grow alongside with our customers.

So we have in Munich, the chance to double. We can even in another location, Munich treble, and that brings us to a capacity around 30, 35 of GPUs, which shows that's almost 1/3 of what the Giga factory by the EU definition is bringing to the table. But we do that alongside the demand that we have enhanced and that connects to what Tim says. We only do what makes commercially sense with us. Also in Munich, we work with the disadvantage of the energy price and that's what we bring forward to the politicians. But we have other things in Munich that makes it a bit more favorable. We have a river close by that helps us cooling.

We have a good deal with NVIDIA that allows us to use the new technology to a very attractive price that we can scale. So therefore, Munich is, for us testing the water. Munich is for us something that makes commercially sense. Munich is for us also the chance to scale. And thereby, we see how far through Munich we can come to something that you would call Giga factory. And if the three conditions that Tim was making bringing across for the Giga factory are coming more clearer bring then commercially sense to us, yes, yes, we can scale Munich into something bigger like a Giga factory.

And guys, one last sentence on that one. we are running almost 300 megawatts of capacity of data centers already today. We have under DTCP, 2 entities, which we own, which is GreenScale and Maincubes. We have our big data center, which we own ourselves, which we are utilizing. We have a GPU factory now in Munich. I can tell you tell me one other telco, maybe the Chinese ones but tell me one other telco who has this kind of competence of T Systems in the back with this infrastructure competence, which is deploying AI and data centers at that point in time.

We are at a lucky position because our capacity is almost sold out. We are expanding this within the footprint today. And we are thinking about whether we should organize our data center capabilities in another way in this company going forward, but that is more fantasy than already a business case, but this is an opportunities others don't have.

Thanks, guys. I'm sure this was music to Emmet's heart. But next up, we got David from Bank of America then Emmet. But given that we still have 4 more people who want to ask questions. Can you maybe restrict yourself to 1 question, and we promise to be to answer swiftly. Okay. So next up, David.

Yes. I hope you can hear me. And yes, guys, thank you for giving us a couple of hours of your time today. I'll get on with this. Now I did want to challenge this concept of German fiber. You are pivoting towards rural fiber -- but you're adding a couple of hundred million euros from the tax rebate. That really isn't much, quite frankly, against the German CapEx budget of sort of EUR 4.7 billion, EUR 4.8 billion. And given the difference in cost between rural build, which is probably EUR 1,500 or so versus urban build of EUR 1,000, I don't see how that touches the sides. So what additional CapEx are you bringing from other projects? And is that not a bad thing?

And I guess my ultimate question is, you mentioned, Christian, the demand curve, but it's so much more than that. It's about leading. It's about being the incumbent accelerating copper switch-off. Why would you not want to accelerate fiber even more, given your current opportunity to really dominate the landscape before maybe some of your competitors get refinanced or get their game together? Would it really be so bad to take some of that additional capital you clearly have on the balance sheet and reallocate it here?

I don't really see why you guys are still hesitating apart from, obviously, you have a 2027 guidance target, but is the network incumbency of the network, not the absolute priority?

So on the fiber question, first of all, the number on increased investment that we communicate is net but on top of that, we are reprioritizing within our CapEx envelope. So what in the end goes into fiber is quite more than what you see net. And this we are doing through a combination of efficiencies and reprioritization within our own envelope. At the moment, we are investing more into fiber than all of our competitors combined. And we are getting our fair share of infrastructure build.

Now having said that, it is up to me and the team in Germany to now also show and proof that we can fill these networks that we can drive up the utilization and monetize those networks. And I'm sure that if we do that, I will be able to go to Tim and Christian and ask for more money.

I like the answer. You change the strategy, and we'll figure out whether it's working out. I think, David, just to add two things. I think even if we would increase the envelope significantly more, they will not prevent municipalities from building out I think they will build out in any case. And what we're seeing right now, the build-out of private equity-backed altnets has come to a standstill, almost to a standstill.

So from this perspective, I think there are 2 sorts of competitors ones you can stop. The other ones, you can stop. And I think whenever we are spending more on a certain direction, I want to see the return. And I think we have had a very good discussion on the strategy shift towards SDUs and MDU's full build-out. But I think we also want to see where this yields results.

And David, let me just say it very clearly, we are absolutely focused each and every one of our employees in Germany on filling this network, on scaling the sales channels, on getting the customers on the network. And hopefully, we will earn our right to build out even more or as I said, I see an opportunity to participate in the consolidation that I think inevitably, we will see in the German market.

Great Okay. So with that, we move on to Emmet and his question, Emmet?

I'm just going to follow up on James' question, please, unsurprisingly, on the AI Giga factory park in Munich. Tim, you've been very clear in the past that you have the data center exposure through capital partners. You've also said, obviously, rolling out the data centers is extremely capital intensive. And we've seen the hyperscalers form kind of joint ventures to roll out some of these data centers. And if you look at the agreement you have in the park, it looks like kind of combination of the biggest German corporate heavyweight. It seems like the Mohamad Ali, the George Foreman and Jim Fraser of German corporates in there. And with this in mind, if the conditions are right, are JVs a way that you can roll out more of this capacity going forward and keep this CapEx off balance sheet?

I think that goes now hand-in-hand with you, Christian, when it comes to the CapEx, et cetera. But let me say so. In Munich, as I said, we did a good deal both on -- we don't own the data center. We rent it on good terms with a good hosting partner that we have. And we have a good deal also on the hardware side. All the rest comes from us. So we can really drive that with a good margin, and we can ramp up the capacity, from that regard. I'm not seeing that we have to engage us into questions like is that more CapEx, is that more data center, et cetera. If we go along and Tim made the point, let's not forget that we own already a lot of data, some of which we also can use for instance, Munich is a good example.

If we have the inference need, so we can put another data center, which is close by on top of that. So therefore, we go along when we see there is demand. We go along when we see we do margin. We go along with either capacity in terms of data center that we have or through data center capacity that DTCP has and their partner or data centers where we get a good attractive price. And with this combination, we can scale and we can adapt alongside customer demand. Does that answer your point?

The answer is very clear, yes. And we are looking into the opportunities here. By the way, within DTCP, GreenScale and Maincubes is expanding. They are on the road to expand 4 new data centers. And by the way, tenants are there, so it's not that we are always competing against them. They are working with us on the utilization as well. So therefore, there is a collaboration taking place as well for Europe and footprint, the demand is high. And yes, we are looking at the opportunity to see how and when we are doing that.

Tim, if I can just follow up, just very, very quickly. Are you finding that German corporates are coming looking for sovereign solutions at the moment like pure European German hosting capabilities?

Look, I'm hesitating a bit because there is a kind of sovereignty wokeness here. Everybody is talking about sovereignty. But look beyond, let's say, stating it, I want to see the clear commitments. We see that in the defense area. There's no question about it. There's a lot of money going in. We are, by the way, with the systems and with the DTCP participating on that one as well. But let's say, on the cloud side, before you break the learn paradigms of the big corporates in the way how they are collaborating with hyperscalers, I think it will need a little bit more time before they really shift their data.

On the classified side, there's definitely a willingness. But look, most of the data doesn't sit in the clouds already. So that is another question how they migrate them prospectively into a sovereign cloud environment.

Yes, maybe on top of that, what we see like when I left the systems like 10 years ago, the direction was clearly we shift everything of our real-time data into hyperscalers, et cetera. Companies like Shell, Volkswagen, they all went that way. That has stopped and it's on a reverse term. Now Tim is right. This is not everywhere already on that reverse term, and it's not fully on that reverse term, but it's, at the moment, a hot topic on the market. And it goes, for instance, if health is one of our biggest sectors where we see that at the moment. The question's are data really leaving the European environment is now getting hot.

And no hyperscaler can architectural signed it. And that brings us into the game. And that's at the moment for us, a good. But I'm with Tim, this train has not fully geared up, but it will.

Great. Okay. So 2 more. One from Robert Grindle on the mail. We didn't manage to connect him. So it is a question for Dominique. It's not on data centers and it's about you're running a portfolio of countries, Dominique, what do you think are the main cross-border synergies, if any?

I think cross-border synergies, we see them more and more because the more you go to digital, the more you go to software-defined network, the more you can bring the network locally and run the software and the intelligence part of it in a central way. This is true for network. It's also true for TV platforms. We have common TV platforms across all our country. We have been rolling out RDK for the routers. We have same routers. So we take all the routers, set-top box, what we call the CPEs in one go, and we have the same across all the countries. So that's providing us, of course, synergies and also synergy from procurement, but not only also synergies in configurations and in managing the home, as I highlighted, as one of the key future development for home experience.

So these are a few examples, the One app or the Magenta app has the same architecture across the different countries. So we are developing currently also one portal on the B2B side. So even in B2B, we see synergies. We have competent centers where we have center of excellences that are supplying product, experience, people to the different countries so that we do not need to duplicate talents in all the countries. One portal is the same. We are rolling it out now across all the country where customer can lock on to our B2B portal, and it will be the same across the different countries.

We also use sales force across the country. So a few examples, just to show you that there are many opportunities for synergy. It is not always easy to implement them because we are still companies that have quite some legacy but when we go into new development, into new products, into new platforms, we really try to do it together in a common way. And currently, also from a cultural perspective, I think people see the advantage of it, trust each other, and it has become much easier to implement and to get the benefits of those cross-border synergies.

Thanks, Dominique. And then I have a question from Akhil at JPMorgan here. The question is now on German broadband again, and what he would like to know is where does the improvement come from? Are we taking share from Vodafone? Or are we doing also better against other players like the altnet in this quarter? And how is that going to develop going forward?

Yes. I think the improvements are coming from really a 360 plan. So we have focused a lot on the nuts and bolts of operations throughout last year and this year. We -- as I mentioned, we are scaling new channels on the acquisition side. We are getting better on the acquisition side. We're also getting better on the retention side. We are running proactive retention campaigns. We have established and upgraded our safeness cooperation. So we are starting to also see our churn come down. So it's really the one-on-one of how to pull all the levers of operations. Where it's coming from?

I think it's quite -- as I answered in the question to James, this market is probably making at the moment, 100,000, 200,000 net adds per year. You can see from the altnets 400 to 500 that they take per year. And then there is the rest. And I think you can do the math on how these volumes are moving. In our case, I want to emphasize this, we have not done this through price aggressiveness. On the contrary, I mentioned all the moves we did on the front book, the moves we are doing on the back book. So this is based on hardcore operations. And that's what gives me confidence that the worst is behind us in 2025.

Of course, there is now an element of uncertainty, as I mentioned because of the back book move that we did. The early indicators are very positive. But of course, we prefer to be paranoid about this one and have all hands on deck on operations, and that was what we're doing every day.

Thanks Rodrigo. And now we have Tim for closing remarks.

Look, thanks, folks, for taking the time. It was a pleasure to have you for more than 2 hours here together and on the questions. And it was, for me, very relaxing because I had the colleagues who were answering the question, and I could play with AI. So this is, by the way, the picture of, let's say, which is prompted about your answers. So that is about that team. So at least I use the time very productively.

So guys summarize it up. Despite the competition, we are delivering the strong growth we had promised. We are overall on track of our capital market signs. I want to reiterate that not only in the U.S., but also in DT ex U.S.and as a group as a whole. So therefore, half term, great achievements, you can rely on us when it matters.

This afternoon, you heard from my management colleagues about some of the achievements and strategic priorities going forward. A few weeks ago, you heard from T-Mobile, from Srini and his team, the same. And building on that, I'd like to highlight the 6 super priorities, which are the ones which are relevant for this year.

The first one is doubling down on connectivity as our core differentiator and extending our lead here. I think this is no question. Nobody else can afford it. We discussed CapEx and the CapEx envelope here. So that is our commitment to you guys. You heard Rodrigo, you heard Dominique on this one. At the same time, we are keen to explore new high-value business opportunities in the data center space.

Second, we want to strengthen our B2B portfolio. We haven't talked so much about B2B today. You guys, this is a EUR 15 billion business, so therefore, it's worth looking at that one. And we want to do that through an integrated portfolio and pursuing the sovereign AI and cloud opportunities, Ferri, laid out. So Ferri and the German team and Dominique's B2B troops are aligned on this one to pursue on these opportunities.

Thirdly, AI will redefine everything here. And this is something where we will consequently invest and we will act accordingly to our commitments here. And we will, by the way, lead the industry. And we will show you where we stand in our especially AI deep dive workshop offering to you in due course.

We are yet to unlock the full power of our transatlantic scale. And this is another priority and the collaboration on B2B with the U.S. on the 6G development, on the AI development, on the digitization, on the procurement elements, all of this is something where we have a unique opportunity at Deutsche Telekom, and we are making good progress with our collaboration here.

And then we will maintain our successful capital allocation. I think the moves we made around the T-Mobile Capital Markets Day from both angles of the world were well appreciated. Another proof that we understand what the market is looking for. And hopefully, you appreciate that. This is a lot of work which is going into this one to continually drive superior value and sustainable shareholder return. And yesterday, we even approved in our Board the EUR 1, which is another way going forward to the EUR 1.50 which we have clearly in sight with regard to the dividend payouts going forward.

And the last thing is all of this is only power -- possible with the culture. We always under missed that, especially in the Capital Markets. You guys think everything is a spreadsheet. I can tell you, 50% is emotion and heart. And therefore, we are investing a lot into our brand. By the way, the most valuable brand of Europe and still I'm not happy where we are, but as well into the best team. You have seen parts of our best team already today. There's a lot of stability in this team. So this is good going forward. And we have a structural and cultural transformation started here, not only the rejuvenation of our leaders here but as well in the way how we develop culture into three directions: collaboration, performance orientation and becoming uncorporate.

So less bureaucracy in the way how we're operating. More to come. If you are interested, I can make a specialty T style workshop because we call our cultural program and the culture in which we are T style. And with this kind of T style, I want to say goodbye.

Thank you for this long session today. Thank you, my colleagues for supporting us today, and thank you all for your trust in to T. Bye-bye.

Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, Okay, bye-bye. The conference is about to end. We'd like to thank you for participating at this call. And of course, also thanks to the management for taking the time and your patience. And should you still have further questions, please address them to the Investor Relations department and speak to you all soon. Goodbye.

Good morning, and welcome, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues. Welcome here in Bonn to our conference on Deutsche Telekom's financial statements. We get together once a year personally, too. And I'm pleased that we have the ladies and gentlemen of the press here personally. And I would also like to welcome all the staff who are following the conference on live stream. Great to have you.

So we have some interesting things to tell you about today, and that's why we have more speakers than usual. I'd like to introduce the speakers for today -- for today and tomorrow. On my right-hand side, Christian Illek, CFO at DTIG; then Tim Hottges, CEO; Rodrigo Diehl, also on the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom in charge of the German business, Dominique Leroy, she's in charge of the Europe segment; and Ferri Abolhassan, who's in charge of T-Systems. So Tim, I'd say with that, you have the floor.

Thank you, Philipp. EUR 1. That's the dividend we are proposing for every share, more than ever before in the history of Deutsche Telekom, and that alone shows that 2025 was a very successful year for us. We delivered. And with that, a very good morning from my side.

Someone recently said about me, this guy is Deutsche Telekom. But I choose to disagree quite clearly, we are Deutsche Telekom. Our results are a team effort. 197,000 employees have made that possible, and that's why more colleagues are sitting here beside me today. So I'm really glad that we have the various Board members here from Telekom Deutschland, Europe and T-Systems at today's conference.

Srini is still in the U.S., and they recently had their Capital Markets Day there. And I am very pleased to say that the Supervisory Board yesterday renewed the contracts of Birgit Bohle, Ferri Abolhassan and the contract of Thorsten Langheim. These contracts have been extended. And this gives us a great deal of stability. We now have an experienced team, and we have new members on Board, that gives us continuity, and that's what we need, first and foremost, in these difficult times.

However, Deutsche Telekom is far more than just its Board of Management. We are a huge global team. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank all colleagues for once again achieving a record result despite the complex challenges we were facing in the past year. Like I said, 2025 was a challenge. We had to cover immense costs of energy for taxes, wages, fringe benefits. Competition in our industry is extremely intense. We dealt with Spectrum and for the first time, satellites, too.

And of course, we also had to deal with sabotage attacks and power outages in the past year. And on top of that, there were exchange rate effects. In 2025, the U.S. dollar lost more than 5% of its value compared to the previous year of 4%, and that's EUR 0.05. And in 2026, the difference has reached almost EUR 0.10. But despite that exchange rate effect, despite the weak dollar, we've managed to grow across all segments, and we are growing everywhere. The strategy is working well. We are carried by the momentum of our flywheel and the numbers add up.

All important financial KPIs have improved year-on-year, compared to the prior year quarter to the third quarter and to the prior year, improvements everywhere. So when you look at momentum, the fourth quarter was stronger than the third quarter. And by the way, the fourth quarter was also stronger than the fourth quarter of the prior year. So in the fourth quarter, the positive trend for Deutsche Telekom even accelerated. Net revenue on an organic basis is up 4.2% to EUR 119.1 billion. Service revenues up 3.8% to EUR 99.4 billion.

Adjusted EBITDA is up 4.7% to EUR 44.2 billion, and we increased our guidance for this 3x in the course of last year and now exceeded even that. Free cash flow, up 2% to EUR 19.5 billion. And I don't think I even have to mention that we've also been able to invest a lot of money, which is also part of our flywheel strategy. So you can see Deutsche Telekom continues to be reliable, especially now where it counts the most. What does that mean?

For me, it means, first and foremost, reliable networks. We continue to extend our network leadership. In 2025, we built 2.5 million new fiber optic lines in Germany alone. By the way, that's more than all of our competitors combined. And we offer extremely reliable service. 25,000 customers in Berlin, just to give you one example, received unlimited data from us. And in this way, they were able to stay in touch despite the sabotaging of the power grid and in most areas, the network was restored in record time. We bear responsibility, especially when it comes to such outstanding events. And that also means reliable investments in artificial intelligence, data centers, cybersecurity and resilience. Across the group as a whole, we invested almost EUR 17 billion in just 1 year, 2025, of which EUR 5.9 billion were invested in Germany alone. I don't know if there's any other company investing on that scale, maybe Deutsche Bahn, but we are doing that for the 12th year in a row, more than every competitor and more than in the previous year.

We launched over 500 AI and data projects and our customers benefit from that. For instance, from our Frag Magenta chatbot, which chatted to customers some 7 million times in 2025, and it was able to independently resolve 56% of all inquiries. We also launched a voice bot in June for everyone who prefers to speak rather than type. And AI benefits the German industrial sector, too.

Our AI factory in Munich delivers the necessary computing capacities. And so that is already available and very effective. With sovereign operation and sovereign data and we 100% comply with European standards. That's all guaranteed. In Germany, we often talk about sovereignty, and we claim that we need to be sovereign. And I can't think of any project that would help us more to reach that sovereignty. And we are now climate neutral in Scopes 1 and 2, meaning we are at net zero. Later on, maybe we can give you more details on that. At any rate, we have made sure that we are only using or that all our energy requirements are covered using renewables.

All operators of critical infrastructure carry an inherent responsibility for stability, for protection for all aspects, and that's why we are expanding in the area of resilience and defense as well. And I'm not just talking about the resilience of our own infrastructure. We also want to invest in companies that will protect critical infrastructure in the future, such as the drone manufacturer Quantum Systems. We are now in the third round of funding as an investor.

And we're also committing additional capital to fund through DT Capital Partners focused on defense and resilience and the minimum target volume is EUR 500 million. This is European capital for European resilience. It's about ensuring the ability of our country and our continent to defend ourselves if need be. Moving on to the outlook, and we remain optimistic regarding 2026. Let me be clear here that what I'm going to say now is not just a wish list. This is a work program. We want our adjusted EBITDA to grow by 6% to EUR 47.4 billion. That would be a 6% growth, like I said, all forecasts, by the way, are based on constant exchange rates, and we have applied the U.S. dollar exchange rate from the prior year of USD 1. 13 to the euro. We want our free cash flow to grow by 3% to EUR 19.8 billion.

Why don't we say EUR 20 billion. And our adjusted earnings per share is to increase by around 10% to EUR 2.20. And we presented our targets for 2027 at the Capital Markets Day in 2024. And back then, these targets looked very ambitious, but I can tell you they are achievable. These are tough times for a lot of companies in this country. A lot of companies do not have reason to be as optimistic. So that is quite remarkable.

And like I said, we presented our targets for '27 at Capital Markets Day in 2024, and we are fully on track in terms of earnings, in terms of free cash flow and earnings per share. We've achieved what we set out to do, and we are on our way to meeting our targets for 2027. Ladies and gentlemen, we can be satisfied even though sometimes it doesn't feel that way because a lot of the things, the factors that influence our success are factors that we don't have an influence on, like geopolitical tensions. Fewer and fewer players abide by the rules that were taken for granted for decades, then ever-changing regulations, especially in the European environment. 270 national regulators determine what happens in our business. Brussels sees a need for further action.

And with the Digital Networks Act, it is just creating more bureaucracy, again, not less. Continuity alone, however, will not be enough to be successful in the future. It will also very much depend on how we are working together. And there are a lot of crises, a lot of challenging framework conditions, and we need to tackle them together with our staff. And that's why we have decided to enhance our corporate culture further.

We recently had a big annual kickoff meeting where we launched a new program called T-Style.

T-Style stands for three things. First of all, we want to improve our performance. We also want to improve cooperation inside our group or across our group, and we want to cut back on red tape in our company. And ladies and gentlemen, Deutsche Telekom is not stuck in a traffic jam. Sometimes we are the traffic jam ourselves. And that's why we need to take action to make things easier in order to be able to be faster so that our staff can also work more effectively. So T-Style stands for excellence, for creativity instead of rigidity, for cooperation instead of silos, for courage instead of fear and for confidence and optimism instead of gloom. And we have every reason to be optimistic across the group and in the segment. And that's why we are now going to look at the segments. And I would like to hand you over to Rodrigo Diehl.

Thank you, Tim, and a warm welcome from my side as well. I will start with an overview of how we've executed against our strategic targets before I dive deeper into the financials. I will then round up things with an overview of my strategic priorities for 2026. Overall, we've made good progress along our strategic targets. 2025 was an important year for our fiber build-out.

We now reach 12.6 million homes passed and added twice as many fiber customers as in 2023. So in 2025, we had twice as many customers on our fiber network as in 2023. We achieved substantial efficiencies in our fiber build, and we are going to reinvest some money in the fiber network. And we reconfigured our fiber strategy, more on this later. When it comes to a digital and AI-driven transformation, and Tim already made a few comments about that, we see some very encouraging early successes also in Germany. Let me give you a few examples. Our customer chatbot, which Tim already mentioned, is now fully LLM-based and achieves a 55% solution rate and people achieve around 70, just to give you an idea. 3.4 million contacts or problems are solved by chat or voice bots.

We have reached 40% zero-touch automatic call identification, and we rolled out AI-based automatic call documentation for our service staff. And more than 2,000 employees are now using this capability. And we are still the undisputed market leader. We won all the service center shop and mobile network tests. And it's not just about tests. It's about the work done by thousands of employees every day.

In this way, we can win these tests in the first place. Our customer bonus program, Magenta Moments has now been established in the market with 5 million active users. Our first-time resolution rate reached 77%. That's an all-time high, a record. And this too, obviously helps us improve customer satisfaction further. Complaints. And this is a number that I check every day. Complaints were down by 50% in the last 2 years alone, a 50% decrease. And last but not least, our brand recognition and our brand values are at an all-time high as well. Let me go to the next page. And let's take a look at our financials. I am pleased to say today that after a weaker third quarter, our headline financials are back on track. Organic revenues were up a strong 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Two factors contributed to this in roughly equal parts.

First, service revenue growth, both in fixed and in mobile. Total service revenues grew 15% year-on-year; and second, strong revenues with our fiber joint ventures. In Germany, we have over 50 partnerships -- partners that we are building the fiber network with. Year-on-year growth in EBITDA at 2.5% was back at a normal run rate after an unusually weak third quarter. And now let's take a look at revenues on the next page.

As mentioned, both fixed and mobile service revenues improved sequentially this quarter. Headlines last year were generally impacted by weaker-than-expected broadband and B2B fixed line revenues. In mobile, the 2.5% year-on-year service growth is a continuation of our ongoing strong performance that we've seen consistently throughout the years. And on the next page, we are taking a deep dive into mobile communications. And there, you can see the consistent strength in our subscriber growth. We had a lot of net adds. As you can see here, we were above the level of Q4 2024. And our propositions continue to resonate well with customers, both business and residential. And our network leadership remains undisputed, and we're extending it with our ongoing network modernization program.

We've successfully addressed growing data demand with well-designed unlimited propositions that we recently updated. And growth at Congstar has also been a big help. And therefore, I am still optimistic, and we remain comfortable with our capital markets guidance of 2% to 2.5% mobile service revenue growth in the period from 2023 to '27, having delivered growth at the top end of this range in the first 2 years.

And that's why, yes, we should actually come out in the range we defined at Capital Markets Day. Moving to the fixed line. We are pleased that our broadband net adds stabilized last quarter. We even won 2,000 net customers last year, 2,000 net adds. This stabilization is the result of multiple measures, including a steady acceleration in fiber connections. Before I give you more details on fiber, however, let's take a look at our progress in the TV segment. We added over 100,000 new TV customers in 2025, and this comes after a little over 300,000 in 2024. Back then the ancillary cost privilege became obsolete and 2024 was the year when we had the rights for the European Championship, which gave us a lot of tailwind. And now talking about fiber. This quarter, we added 164,000 fiber customers, our best ever quarter and much better than the figures we saw in the Q4 of 2024.

And our fiber penetration was up 11% year-on-year at 16.4% and we'll continue to speed things up. We're stepping on it. The entire German organization focuses on increasing the number of customers using fiber. Fiber will continue to be our area of focus as I will demonstrate on the next couple of pages. So as mentioned, in 2025, we increased our fiber footprint by 2.5 million. As promised, we remain well on track for our stated 2027 target of around 17.5 million homes passed.

But what's even more important is that the number of fiber customers increased by almost 600,000. Let me repeat that 600,000 German households were connected to the fiber network in 2025, a line from us. And therefore, we are on track towards our target run rate of 1 million in 2027. And we will continue to step up our fiber investments funded by improving efficiencies, budget reallocations and federal tax relief. This amounts to a total of EUR 800 million more for the years '26 to '28, which is a clear commitment to the fiber rollout as we continue to invest more than any other company in Germany, hence, living up to our responsibility. And as communicated in the third quarter, and we've come a long way now in terms of implementation, we are now increasing our focus on single-family homes and less densely populated areas.

As for multifamily homes, we will increase our focus on connections, buildings prepared and the full build-out for more homes connected. meaning we're not just going to the basement, but we are basically connecting the entire home so that customers in the future will no longer have to wait 3 months for a fiber line to be connected, but just a couple of minutes. And we are also improving our sales approach, and the first results are very encouraging. We're scaling that, and it looks very good.

Now let's take a look at the fixed line revenues. While our broadband net adds improved last quarter, our access revenue trends remain impacted by last year's volume losses. Retail broadband revenue growth slowed to 1.6% in the last quarter. This was driven by the volume losses, while the ARPU momentum remained positive, especially in the B2C sector. B2C ARPA was up 3% to 4% year-on-year. Overall, we remain committed to our capital markets CAGR guidance of 3% to 4%, even though this looks challenging from today's perspective. Wholesale revenues improved sequentially. Here, ARPA momentum continues to offset ongoing volume losses. Overall, over the '23 to '27 guidance period, we expect to deliver the stable wholesale access revenues that we promised at Capital Markets Day.

So what are our priorities for 2026? Let me talk about that before I give you an outlook. We are industry -- the industry leader when it comes to the fiber build-out. And the priority is to keep accelerating our fiber customer growth towards our 1 million target in 2027. 1 million German households will be connected to our fiber network by 2027. And this will help us both on the volume and on the value side.

Another key focus is to take our digital and AI-driven transformation to the next level. And personally, I am convinced that potential for efficiencies is even bigger than we thought to date. So we are modernizing our network, and we are constantly extending our mobile network leadership through our network modernization program, and we are translating this through our best network campaign into even stronger brand leadership. Another priority is to evolve our Magenta app into a central operating system for customer interactions along the lines of what you're seeing from T-Mobile U.S. So copied with pride from our colleagues in the U.S. As part of this, we aim for 70% of the extensions of mobile contracts and additional SIMs to be done through the app.

In B2B, we want to stand apart from others with secure networks and market-leading cloud and AI propositions. We're doing that with Ferri from Systems. German business customers can work with us as a strong and German sovereign company that takes responsibility and will guide them through digitalization in a determined fashion. So now let me talk about the outlook. On the service revenue side, we're currently below our ambitious Capital Markets Day target.

While mobile is tracking in line, weaker fixed service revenues are weighing. The weaker-than-expected fixed service revenues result from 2025 broadband customer losses and a weaker-than-expected B2B performance. This year, we're expecting overall similar total service revenue growth as in the prior year. On the EBITDA side, we expect a better trend in '26 and a return to a more normal year-on-year increase. So we are still committed to the goals we communicated at Capital Markets Day. EBITDA CAGR, 2.5% to 3%. But given the weaker growth in '26, we now expect to be at the low end of this range. With that, after this overview of the situation in Germany, I would like to hand over to Dominique. We've worked together for the past 5 years. Over to you, Dominique.

Yes. Thank you, Rodrigo. Good morning from my part. Moving on to our European segment. I'm happy to confirm that we continued our success story once again in 2025. Let me share a few highlights along our main strategic pillars, growth, transformation and scale and our efforts to win the hearts of our customers. First of all, growth. We achieved strong service revenue growth of 3.9% in 2025, which was driven both by B2C and B2B.

This success is based on our network leadership, further progress with fixed mobile convergence and strong B2B growth with ICT services. We've added 1.1 million fiber homes in 2025. bringing our FTTH number to 11.3 million homes with an average utilization rate of 36%, while our 5G coverage reached 92% by the end of 2025. Looking at transformation to scale, we're proud of our 73% app penetration and growing chat share. Our transformation towards more digital sales and service is progressing well. And we're driving AI for network automation, energy savings and improved customer experience. We've made good progress with scaling platforms with the build-out of centers of excellence in the B2B area and our common network operating model across the NatCos. Turning to the last category, winning the hearts of our customers.

We're top rated in trim customer satisfaction in almost all our markets, both in B2C and B2B. 9 million of our customers have signed up to Magenta Moments and about 45% are actively using it every month. Next to our strong customer focus, we're also very proud to have very high employee satisfaction across our NatCos. And all these successes translate into a strong financial performance. In Q4, we delivered another excellent quarter.

It was the 32nd consecutive quarter of organic EBITDA growth. Organic Q4 revenue growth was 3.5%. Service revenues grew 4.6%, helped by strong B2B IT service revenue growth in Greece. This brought full year service revenue growth to 3.9%. Our growth was strong both in B2C and B2B, and it remains underpinned by continued strong growth in customer numbers. EBITDA AL growth slightly dipped in the last quarter, but remained strong at 3.8% year-on-year. And we ended the year with a strong 5.4% organic EBITDA AL growth. So this slight sequential slowdown reflects the phaseout of previous price increases and the phasing of various one-timers. Our European commercial performance, going to the next chart, remains consistently strong. and it accelerated in all relevant product categories last quarter.

All the NatCos are contributing to this trend with Poland doing particularly well. To carry on our success story in 2026, there are several priorities that I would like to highlight. We shall maintain our strong pace in building the best network. We will add more than 1 million fiber homes in 2026 while keeping utilization high. And we will push to reach 95% 5G coverage.

To continue our growth in our core business, we will double down on delivering the best home experience to our customers and further enhance this with new smart features surrounding home control and security. At the same time, we will accelerate growth in new business areas beyond core. We will leverage Magenta moments in B2C by launching new propositions like gifting, travel and dining. This will reinforce customer engagement towards the tea brand. And we will double down on monetizing AI and digital sovereignty in B2B. We will push for even more transactions in our digital channels, aiming for more than 30% e-sales share and up to 50% of all mobile prolongations and tariff changes on digital. We will step up adoption of AI and sales and service, including in call centers and shops through AI-assisted transactions.

We will further leverage AI to offer more hyper-personalized and contextualized experiences and products. And we will furthermore continue to simplify and retire our legacy systems to attain more efficiency gains. All of this will not only translate into better experience for our customers, but also help us further reduce our IDC to service revenue ratio. Going forward, we will build towards a next-gen customer experience, which is centered around the Magenta app.

We will further drive customer engagement with Magenta moments and aim to reach 10 million registered members already by year-end 2026. And we will continue to focus on improving our customer experience across all domains. Next to our customer focus, we will keep on investing into our employees. Our goal is to push towards becoming top 5 employer in telco and ICT because we want to attract the best talent in the market with focus on future skills like AI. So all of these actions will contribute to our securing our #1 position in TRIM. We're very well on track for our stated CMD Capital Markets Day targets, both with service revenue and EBITDA AL where our growth in the first 2 years were each well ahead of our CMD targets.

In 2026, we expect further growth in service revenues and an increase in EBITDA to EUR 4.8 billion. We also expect underlying EBIT AL growth north of the 3% range. That's close to what we delivered in 2025 and adjusted for the tailwind from the end of the Hungarian telco tax. So with that, I would now hand over the floor to Ferri, who will walk you through the story for T-Systems.

Thank you, Dominique, and good morning. You are a role model for me. For 32 quarters, you've continued to improve performance that is outstanding. And this is something that we are working to achieve at T-Systems as well. And yes, we will use you as a role model for that. I think T-Systems is no longer Deutsche Telekom's trouble [indiscernible]. We certainly achieved the turnaround. And 2025 was a good year for the second time, and we'll try to keep that up. We don't want to be a burden for the group. Instead, we want to help bolster it. And for that, we need to earn our money and prove our value in the market. Revenue grew by 3%, which is in line with the promises made at Capital Markets Day, just like all the other KPIs. But we don't just want to increase revenue, but also profitability more so than revenue so that in the end, our cash flow is also good.

We will likely never be the #1 pillar for the big tanker, which is Deutsche Telekom. But then if we make the most of our staff and their skills, then we can be a big support for Deutsche Telekom. Look at our order entry here at the bottom right, that was outstanding in 2025. We had an outstanding December and the full year was outstanding as well. And the order intake always gives an idea of a company's reach. We are in the project business after all.

And that's why order entry -- the order entry we see here is not just good, but it also gives us an indication that we have had a good start to the new year. There's one number that is not shown here. So let me just mention it. We have a TRIM of 93 points, which is an all-time high. And I'm just saying that because Rodrigo and Dominique also said that we want to turn our customers into fans. that set the stage. And if we don't manage to do that, we won't be able to generate revenues. That's why we are very happy with our TRIM value, that's very good, but it's not the end of the story either. Every individual customer accounts and there's still some work to do here. In 2026, we'll continue to have stable financial operations, which is also in line with the promises made at Capital Markets Day.

And this will at the end of the day, give us new opportunities as well for Deutsche Telekom, and that has always been the vision of Tim Hottges as well. When it comes to the important topics in the field of digitalization, T-Systems can make a major contribution based on the skills of our staff and for our customers, and we can prove it every day. There are basically 3 fields that I'm talking about.

That's AI; secondly, cloud and sovereignty and thirdly, key industries. Let's talk about AI for a moment. At T-Systems alone, we have around 1,500 experts who only work in this field for our customers, and they are gaining a lot of experience that Dominique and Rodrigo will also be able to use both for internal and external AI products. And we have almost 500 AI and data projects, including our new AI factory in Munich and so open to others. I'll get back to that later on. At the end of the day, we also want to make a contribution to telecom's business in key industries. That certainly includes public and health and defense, which is another mission of ours and has been for quite some time. So we're not just beginning to work on that.

We've been working on it for a while. And here, you can see the numbers for '26 that should give us the possibility to scale. In '26, we want to grow revenue by 50% year-on-year. T-Systems should have a share of EUR 200 million here. And at Capital Markets Day, we mentioned the EUR 1 billion target, and we are well on track to achieve it. And we are the market leader in the field of private cloud in Europe, but also leading when it comes to sovereignty in Europe.

And we want to increase our T Cloud public revenues by 20% to over EUR 200 million. That is an important step, not just for T-Systems, it will also play a major role for the group. And we are doing that together. Rodrigo and myself, we are working together. We have a joint cloud group that we can use to launch new products on the market. And we realized early on that the automotive sector is also important for us. Over the past few years, we've taken relevant steps. And we ask ourselves how can we make the most of our experience here. Automotive will always be an important market for us, a market that we feel very loyal to. And of course, we want to grow, and we are trying to prepare ourselves for things to come, which is why we are now focusing more on public and health and defense, for instance, drones. So now we have a right to play. We stand apart from others.

And that's why in '26, we aim for more than EUR 100 million of revenues, especially in these fields, public health and defense. And for that, we also need to focus on offshore and nearshore projects. We have an offshore team of almost 12,000 people in India by now. which doesn't only boost T-Systems profitability. We also do it for T-Mobile U.S. We also do it for Rodrigo. So we are the ones who support this field for Deutsche Telekom. So it's offshore, nearshore. And there's also a transformation towards AI.

I call it a production machine. We set that up in India, and it helps us to use AI at an early stage so that we can use labor arbitrage, not just in the context of nearshore and offshore, but also in general. 10% to 20% is our goal here for this year. So we are doing things that make us stand apart from others that help us as T-Systems to grow, but that also support the group as a whole. So now let me show you my last slide. And this is an example of how Deutsche Telekom can support the notion of Made for Germany. What does Germany need to catch up in AI linking up to the big foundation models out there. That's the talk of the town. And I am proud to say that T-Systems as part of Deutsche Telekom has made it clear that we are tackling these things. In Munich, for the first time, we are using state-of-the-art technology for a complete AI stack.

You can see some numbers here from Munich on the left-hand side within less than 6 months from the idea to implementation, we are starting with a set with the latest NVIDIA chips. We need a green data center that doesn't need a lot of energy with an energy efficiency factor of less than 1.2. But it's not just about selling hardware to the market. We are talking about an open, secure and sovereign AI stack.

And this AI stack from connectivity right through to the data center layer, the platform and the connection together with partners such as SAP and Siemens is addressing customers to tackle things such as digital twins, optimizing products, digital twins, product maintenance, et cetera. So in this way, we are addressing the industry. Industry, SMEs, small- and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of Germany's economy. And we're not just offering LLMs. But the question is how can a production company, how can an SME make sure security standards. It is run by our staff in Germany. And there's just one non-German element, and that's American hardware. There's no way around that. But it is -- other than that, it is sovereign from end to end. It is open to others and it can be used by our customers and industry and all -- are we limited to Munich as a location as such.

But rather than just debating how we can make Germany fit for data centers and AI, we just want to get down to business now. And we can see that there is a high demand already I think it was the 4th of February when this new factory was opened and the level of utilization is already very high. So there's a great deal of demand, and we wanted to test how it is received in the market. And with that, over to Christian.

Yes. Thanks,. I'll keep things short to and give you an overview of the group. But first, turning to the U.S. and then I'll finally look at the financial metrics over the last year and some of the financial ratios. Reported service revenue based on U.S. GAAP increased by 10.5% to USD 18.7 billion and that includes U.S. Cellular for a full quarter for the first time. Postpaid service revenue increased by 13.9%. There were several effects here. First of all, higher customer numbers, but also increased profitability. And adjusted core EBITDA also based on U.S. GAAP grew 6.8% to USD 8.4 billion. Customer growth in the U.S. was very strong in the fourth quarter, as you heard, 2.4 million postpaid customers.

Although the churn rate rose slightly to 1.02%, that's incidentally a development that can be observed across the industry in the United States, and you can get the other key figures from the charts. Turning to the development with the group's financials. Here are the figures. And we're looking back on a very successful 2025. I'll try to analyze this for.

We had a negative effect through the U.S. dollar, and that led to a lower profit, but we were helped by the U.S. dollar's drop in CapEx and also M&A activities also played a role, especially in the U.S. and especially U.S. Cellular, but also there were 4 additional M&A activities in 2025, the acquisition of several companies and a 50% share in 2 companies, [indiscernible] said, one metric was negative. That was an adjusted net profit. That was because in 2024, there were a reversal of impairment losses that took place the year before joint ventures with GD Towers and GlasfaserPlus. These result reversals of impairment losses increased reported net profit in 2024 and hence, also the basis for comparison for 2025. And this brings me to the development of free cash flow, adjusted net profit and net debt over the last year. Free cash flow, as I said, increased by 2% year-on-year.

This was essentially driven by operative activities and EBITDA was EUR 1.12 billion, but the weaker dollar also had a reducing effect of around EUR 1.4 billion. If we hadn't had this, it would have been EUR 1.4 billion higher.

And we had an increased CapEx greater than expected, around EUR 642 million in the United States was the increase in CapEx, around EUR 88 million in the Germany segment. Looking at adjusted net profit, that grew 3.7%, and that was lower than our ambition for 2026 if you look at '26, but we had the effect of the U.S. dollar and a weaker financial results.

This came because of increased interest expenses in the U.S. and also in our stakes in other companies, and that explains the dip here. Net debt here, just a few words on this. As you heard, the weaker dollar helped us here with this minus EUR 6.7 billion. This is ex leasing of EUR 1.2 billion. But what's important is the right-hand side of this chart, where we have been able to reduce our net debt to EUR 6.2 billion. This is just a brief overview of the financial metrics, and I'll be glad to go into any detail if you want. With that, I would give the floor back to Tim.

Thank you very much for your patience. Now that's been an awful lot of information, but it was a very busy year, too, right? That became quite clear. Okay. So now let's continue with the Q&A. We're looking forward to your questions.

Please raise your hand. Starting with Mr. Stefan Scher from the Handelsblatt. And make sure you turn on the mic so that people can also hear you in the video conference.

Stefan Scher from Handelsblatt. I have two questions, Mr. Hottges. First of all, data center business is your -- something like your pet subject. And you want to make sure that Deutsche Telekom can expand its business beyond the network business. What direction are you headed? Telecom Italia has made a lot of headway here. What could be the role of that for Deutsche Telekom's business overall going forward?

And secondly, last year, this conference, I asked you about the US and what's happening there and what's happening in the U.S. is in line with your values here. Back then you said that your values at Deutsche Telekom still apply but then now i understand you are helping to build the new premises on the White House. And how does that fit in with what you said before?

Well, the data center business is something that we have for quite some time. And we are running the data center to generate more business. So it's not about square meters and megawatt. It's about business and customers. With DTCP, our sister organization, sister company, we now have an opportunity to have good market partners in the data center field that gives us a lot of leverage, and we made the most of this room for maneuver in Munich. And yes, I think that demand amongst our customers will continue to grow here.

Let me add to this. We have data centers across the group. We have Green Scales and Mine Cubes and own data center at Biere and Magdeburg. Then we set up this new data center in Munich. Of course we will continue to deal with the data center business and the question will be at some stage whether we can consolidate it into one business at some time but the final decision has not been made yet.

I would like to mention the giga factory here. I think that german industry collaborates very well in this field. With the Schwarz Group, in particular, we have developed alot of common ground. We need GPO capacities for Germany at a completely new level compared to where we are today.

But let me also tell you, Brussels made a lot of big promises at the Summit meeting with Macron. They said that they would invest EUR 6 billion in data centers in Europe, but we haven't heard a lot about that since. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the German government to combine their capacities in such a way that they can guarantee a minimum level of utilization for these data centers.

And there is no real demand -- or sorry, no real reaction to the negative energy prices in this country or the too high energy prices. And yes, then we expected a tender from Brussels before long. And now apparently, this has been put off to May. So I would hope that things are sped up here and that politicians take action.

Germany Deutsche Telekom doesn't need a gigafactory. Germany does. Let me highlight that. And if politicians do not provide a framework for that, then we will not invest in this kind of project, which is why, yes, the policymakers really need to provide relevant incentives. And then you asked about values and the ballroom next to the White House, which is currently being built.

Yesterday, we had our Pulse survey for Telecom. It's a global survey, and it's relevant to us everywhere, and we've improved our results here once again. So our employees are feeling fine with Deutsche Telekom and its values. Needless to say, there's also a certain level of polarization within a company as big as Deutsche Telekom as anywhere else. That's normal for a democratic entity.

So I look at this as a whole, and I am proud that there's this feeling of belonging in our corporation and that we have this culture that unites us all. And that is the reason why we've now set up the T-Style. Tomorrow, I'll have a big town hall meeting to also present the substance behind that T-Style program.

There are legal and political rules in every country. We are not just holding up ethical standards for the sake of it. We comply with legal requirements in every country, obviously. And right now, in none of the countries where we are active, we are facing any restrictions of our values in terms of diversity, performance orientation and our corporate culture as a whole. We don't see any limits there.

And you mentioned the funding of the ballroom. The Americans will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the constitution. It's a big celebration. And if something like that were to be celebrated in Germany, Deutsche Telekom would sponsor it as long as it's in line with our brand and our products. In the U.S., it is a common thing that companies sponsor such events.

And the benefit is that taxpayers don't have to pay for it. That is basically the responsibility of companies. But we are not supporting the building of the ballroom. We are supporting the inauguration ceremony. And that's part of good citizens in the U.S., and we will continue doing things like that in the future. It's just like I said, it's good corporate citizens. And that's nothing that would call our values into question at all. I'm not looking at that critically.

Question from the WDR public broadcaster.

You just held up the EUR 1 coin for the photographers, nice. I suppose that [indiscernible] trade union will also react to that. Can you comment on the imminent wage talks? There will be collective bargaining. To what extent do you want to make sure that employees will be able to share the success of Deutsche Telekom right now?

Yesterday, we spent the whole day discussing things with the employee representatives. I think so far, Deutsche Telekom has been very good at finding common ground with the employee representatives, sharing interests. And when it comes to the transformation of this company, we've always been able to shape it and manage it in a good way. Then again, I always -- I would always like to see more momentum, a more dynamic development in Germany as a whole, and we need to become more agile. Other countries are more agile than us. So we have to make sure that when it comes to productivity and our economic performance, we're good. That is the best way of guaranteeing that we can keep jobs and safeguard jobs at Deutsche Telekom.

If that's not possible, then Deutsche Telekom will have to shift jobs to other countries. That would be the logical consequence. And that has already happened. That's the wage arbitrage, be it in the field of software development or software products. So yes, Germany needs to become more competitive, and it has already become competitive in some fields.

There was once a discussion about outsourcing all our call centers. We said back then that external call centers would be -- were far more effective. But then together with the employee representatives, we developed a concept for making the call centers more effective, also very much driven by Ferri Abolhassan.

Today, almost all of these call centers are still part of our company. It's almost exclusively telecom employees, and they are doing a great job, and that's precisely the right way, improving competitiveness, maintaining competitive together jointly, both nationally and internationally. And that's why I am hoping that we will have a fair collective bargaining progress with demands that are not over the top. And we offer continuity at Deutsche Telekom also in terms of our strategy and in terms of our cooperation with the employee representatives. And that's precisely what has made us strong in the past.

I'm from DPR. You have a 60.4% pickup rate on FTTH right now. There's room for improvement, though. How do you think this will continue to develop? You're at 20% right now and the consumer agencies record the complaints and it's increased considerably, and this relates to the fact that it's being delivered a lot later than pledged.

And the second major block of complaints relate to advertising. And I asked about what company was involved there with the consumers' agency and Deutsche Telekom was named among others. So has this -- have you heard about this criticism and the number of people that are making use of this. This Is not developing the way it should.

And my second question relates to the TV business. Growth rates here are kind of moderate, let's say, going back to the football World Cup. Back then, you thought that the elimination of the ancillary cost privilege would help a lot. I'd just like to hear a rough estimate of why the TV business hasn't picked up like you hoped? And hasn't become this really major growth story that you were hoping for back then.

Well, I can tackle that question. Regarding fiber, in the third quarter, we mentioned that our focus and objective is to connect people to the fiber network and to increase the utilization of it. That also costs money, and we've modified our strategy accordingly. We're focusing more on rural areas. We're seeing that with single-family homes where the utilization rate was 30% or a little over that.

We want to move more to rural regions where there's more family houses there. And there is a bottleneck out there. It's difficult -- this is a difficulty in urban areas with multifamily apartments, apartment buildings. There, it's only 10%, slightly above 10%. And there are structural issues, too. Sometimes it's just not possible in these multifamily apartment houses to connect every family.

So we want to make full build-out the objective. And when we're not allowed to do that, then we have to look at scaling. Q4 was our best quarter ever with -- we have the objective of 1 million in 2027. That would help us attain this utilization target. And you mentioned the past development.

Yes. And we've made some excellent progress though. And this is since COVID because during COVID, fiber was a great business. A lot of customers wanted it then. That was a push back there. But now we have to approach customers. And the question is, how can we strengthen our distribution channels to approach customers.

And 2 channels have -- that we're really trying to scale upscale right now, and that's bearing fruit. One of them is we call that consultants from the shops. These are advisers from the shops, and there will be 250 staff by the end of this year who will be going from the shops to approach customers and even visiting them. And we have relations with them. We know the streets, the roads. We know their neighborhoods, and we'll use this knowledge to -- we'll leverage it to go to the customers.

And the second channel is we're building a lot of fiber every day out there, we have about 20,000 staff members, building, building, building, and many of them also enter into the buildings, the houses of customers every day, day in, day in, day out, 6,700 of them. And they can provide a pitch and develop leads to customers as well.

The customers can then call a service center and get a fiber connection. We have 4,000 leads a week through this channel with a conversion rate of almost 50%. So that makes me very optimistic that we'll achieve this target of 1 million in 2027.

And I can tell you all 60,000 of our employees in Germany are really focused on utilization of the fiber network. And that drives us. And that's our contribution to digitalization of Germany. And that's what motivates us when we come to work in the morning. And that's why we are optimistic that we'll achieve this.

And the second part of your question, I think it has to do with the marketing model for fiber in Germany and how it works, how it functions. There's no premarketing. First contracts are concluded and then the building takes place. And sometimes it takes quite a long time and only then do customers get the fiber connection. And of course, sometimes it can take 6, 12 or even 18 months. The lag between the moment where the customer signs an agreement and really gets the connection. Of course, that's too long. And a lot of times, that causes some irritation among customers.

But I can assure you, I look at these complaints relating to fiber week in and week out, and they are really decreasing significantly because we're learning. We're on a learning curve with our processes, with our journeys, and that's why these complaints are declining continuously and will continue to.

With regard to TV, I'm actually quite satisfied with the development of our TV business. In contrast to broadband, where we're the incumbent in the TV business, we're the attacker. And we were the underdog really. And now we have 5 million customers on our TV platform right now, 5 million as the attacker in this market. And our ambition is to really boost this figure a lot.

And we have a historical opportunity with the World Cup, and we bought the rights to the World Cup. And we'll have -- we'll be broadcasting 44 matches exclusively on Magenta TV. So we have really high ambitions for TV. And I wouldn't measure our success just in the number of subscriptions we have, but rather broadband subscriptions together with TV and the bundle that we're selling in a package.

We were the most successful TV provider this year, if you look at the growth figures in the market among all the competitors, we grew the most. And I'm pretty optimistic that, yes, there is room for improvement. We have 15 million broadband customers and 5 million TV customers. So you see what potential there is. Just something to add on the business approaching customers at home.

We've really worked hard on this and to really improve our professionalism here. And I can send you some additional -- I can send you a link where we address this topic. I think that's the best approach, this doorstep selling to fiberglass rollout in Germany.

But yes, we're the leading provider when it comes to ethical standards here, too. Yes, the complaint ratio here is less than 1 in 1,000 in this area. I always say, hey, that's too many. And I look at this every week, but this also shows how much we're -- how hard we're working on quality. Then let's go to Ms [indiscernible] and then we'll look at the chat.

I would like to go back to human resources. Mr. [indiscernible] said, if the underlying conditions aren't right, then we have to offshore, but we heard that we have 12,000 offshore workers and an efficiency boost through that of 10%. That sounds like you have some concrete plans to increase the number of offshore workers. What are your plans there?

And then I'd like to ask about the AI gigafactory again, a question. How great do you think the possibility will be to get another one in Germany? And this cooperation with the Schwarz Group with getting -- is there indications that we could persuade them to get another gigafactory in Germany? What are the plans in this regard?

Let me start with the second part. We have a good partnership with the Schwarz Group. We're not planning anything on top of that. We are building 2 data centers in Europe. In Lebanon, the Schwarz Group is also building a data center. But for now, we're just focusing on the first one or two steps, not a third one. Yes, I think there is room for expanding the cooperation, and that's not an issue in the German industry. That's fine. Then the second question, what's the likelihood?

I can't tell you that's an economic decision that we will take once we know what terms the tender comes with. Now I think it's interesting to look at the GPU prices that are defined, then the question is whether the EU and the German government will be able to ensure a 35% level of utilization using their own data centers. That is another relevant question.

And the third question is, will there be any subsidies to offset the differences in energy prices? I mean, our prices here are 25% higher than those of the French, for instance, and they may be different elsewhere again. So these are the questions. And once these questions have been answered, then yes, maybe we can continue from there. But so far, these questions have not been answered. Yes, that was completely to the point.

Then the staff transformation in Germany, that was the second question. You see in Germany, this staff transformation has been going on for quite some time. And Germany only accounts for 17% of Deutsche Telekom's business today. We are a global corporation. And needless to say, we are using or we are leveraging the benefits that come with that. And let's not talk about offshore here. These are real telecom colleagues. And when I go there, then they are sitting there with their telecom gear and they are fully committed, just as committed as our colleagues here at Lychen and Bonn.

So these are telecom staff, and I just wanted to get that straight, not just some offshore staff. Secondly, our staff in other locations also have other skills that we leverage. So here's the thing about Germany.

Everybody in this company has a certain entrepreneurial responsibility for this company, and it's been like that for a long time. Everybody is responsible for ensuring cash flow and profitability. And I'm proud of the turnaround that Ferri has brought about at T-Systems. We see a positive cash flow there.

We can see that EBITDA is growing at the double-digit range, and that business has now become self-sustained as well. But for that, you need to make the right investments. You need to focus on the right things. You need to take the right decisions. And it also means that our staff is passionate of our business and is working effectively. And that's not possible -- if that's not possible in a particular location because staff are too expensive or not adequately committed, then you need to counteract that. So it's not against Germany, it's with Germany. I want to keep as many jobs as possible in this country, but it also needs to be affordable.

And that's not just the responsibility of the employer, but it is also the responsibility of the works councils that are responsible for the various locations. And ultimately, we have to be careful. When we hear that everybody says, we call upon the employers to find some common ground. It's not just our responsibility. We need to find common ground with the employee representatives. It's their responsibility as well. Next question?

Just a quick follow-up question. You mentioned the 270 regulators in Europe that are quite skeptical about AI gigafactories. But my -- what's your gut feeling about Europe? You've talked a lot about Germany. But how do you expect the telecommunications industry in Europe to develop from here? Do you think that something can actually change? And if so, how and why?

I'll start in German and then I'll switch to English. Yes, we are very disappointed with regulation in Europe. And the only good thing is the extension of Spectrum. That's the only positive trend that we are seeing here. But anything else that we are seeing is not good for the telecommunication sector. The rules haven't become any less complex.

And the hyperscalers are not paying anything for using our networks. That hasn't happened. And we always said that we don't want to have ex-anti, but ex-post regulation. And now we see the new networks, the fiber networks, which are rolled out and ex-anti-regulation is not so important anymore. We need to have a free market, you see that makes it possible for all the players to compete against each other.

And if you are -- if somebody is not adequately or not enough competitive, then you can still do something on an ex-post basis. But that's not how it's handled. So we are very disappointed, and we'll continue to fight for better regulation of our sector. It's an important sector. A lot of investments are made in this sector. This sector enables digitalization in all the countries. And it's really important that we are getting support from European lawmakers here also to counteract the trends that we see in the U.S. and China.

I love your accent. I would just add a couple of things to that. First of all, in Europe, right now, we're seeing more and more red tape, more requirements. You have to just look at it very soberly and that's a fact. And yes, and that's being planned in the recent paper that was mentioned.

And in this paper, we didn't find any answers to what [indiscernible] and [indiscernible] called for. The single market and the independence of Europe, especially in international competition with China and America, that would be so important.

And there's no -- this isn't tackled in any ambitious way. And in this report, and I'm on the fifth commission now. This is the fifth commissioner actually that I've worked together with. And you always have the good and the bad. And the bad is quite clear. There's more regulations. This whole web of regulations isn't decreasing and there's fewer exemptions, but then they also say they want to extend Spectrum over a period of 50 years. And I can tell you right now, that's not going to happen. Because in the paper, it says that, but that's only so that the telecommunications industry is provided a little bit of hope, let's say.

But the actual markets will never go along with that. And that's to put it mildly to put it bluntly, they don't take it seriously. And this lack of ambition in this paper and in Brussels that they approach telecommunications with is fatiguing. It's just wearing me out. And against this background, we're doing what we always do. We're carrying on.

We're not trying to change things that we can't change. That's a great quote. By the way, write it down. We are concentrating on what we can do given the existing conditions aside from politics and things like that. We can invest. We can invest in fiber in the U.S. where it's profitable. We can invest in a gigabyte factory in Munich. We can push forward fiber build-out in Germany.

We're not going to take off the blinders. We are focusing on these topics, but this industry could do a heck of a lot better and citizens in Europe could do a lot better too if there are more with more ambition in the telecommunications and digitalization market. You know this whole litigation with Meta. There's no initiative from Brussels in this regard. We'll stop.

Good. And now I'm looking at the chat. And the first one on the list is Mr. Hassan from Reuters. Mr. Hassan Can you hear us? Then I would ask you to ask your question.

Yes, i can hear you. I have a question for Mr. Abolhassan. You talked about the growing demand for the AI factory. And I would like to know what is the capacity utilization right now? And how much of that is from public institutions, either government institutions or research institutes.

Well, I'm not going to disclose all the figures here, but we are about 40% to 50% utilization here, and that's in line with our ambition. And because it's only been open a few months, [indiscernible] factory. And regarding Sophie, you might have heard about this because that was publicly announced. We have a cooperation with the Nova Institute. This is the first European foundation model, and that addresses consumers and the public. And that is an open, secure sovereign factory for industry, but also for the public sector. And now that's where I would stop. There's still room. That's right. There's still room. And it would be not -- it wouldn't be so good if we opened a shop and everything was sold out in just a couple of months. Yes, just a brief addition.

Ms. Hassan Yes, thank you. The dollar this year has really impacted the business this year. And I was wondering if you're planning on hedging against the dollar because you're talking about adjusted targets, financial targets?

And my second question relates to the Germany business, the mobile communications market. If I see correctly, you're not expecting net adds for your market here. And I assume that your cooperation with Congstar and your other partners, fraenk will help you forward going forward this year. But how about with prices, special offers? And how do you want to react to the situation right now going forward?

I can tackle that first. Start with the second question, maybe take the second one first. Well, regarding the mobile communications market, your question on that, we Christian, correct me if I'm wrong, but we report just like we always did if we have a dividend in Germany. And if we look at customer growth figures, the good news is that we're growing our customer base in all three areas.

So we're like a plane that has three jet engines in it and pushing us higher and higher. We have the B2B area where we've gained customers in the private customer business, we've grown. And also, we've gained customers with Congstar with that brand and the fraenk brand. So the segmentation we have is really paying off. And did you want to comment on Europe?

Yes. I think in Europe, mobile communications is really important. 2/3 of our sales are from mobile. So that's part of our DNA here. And growth in the mobile area has been considerable. And you see that in T-Mobile and the Magenta markets, too. In Germany, you have a second brand. But in all the other countries, it's just the T brand. In all the markets, we're growing. Our market share is growing. And in Germany, we have the highest share of market revenue. We have a market share of almost 50%. We're growing in mobile in almost all areas. We're concentrating on the first brand because it's so strong, the T brand right now, nothing against fraenk and Congstar. We won prizes for these. So the focus on marketing of the first brand is paying off because it's so strong right now. And that's our recipe for success globally right now is a very strong mobile.

Yes, we're only hedging in the financial area, right? And with M&A transactions, we look at this possibility. In the acquisition of Sprint, we do normal operative hedging. Everything else is just much too expensive actually. And in our annual report, you'll see some figures on that.

And if you look at the currency rates, you'll see why we work with organic comparisons so the years can be compared with each other, just like -- so financial analysts can look at our business. But we don't do any operative hedging as you'll notice from the figures.

Then the next on my list is Mr. Klein from Spegel. Are you still there? I see you on the monitor, and we can hear you Your question, please?

I have questions on AI and broadband. Magenta AI is a big project. Can you tell us how it is used? And when do you expect to make any money with it? And about broadband, according to media reports, you've started to increase the monthly rates of old contracts. How many customers are affected by that? And are you expecting this to also have an influence on the number of fiber customers? Because maybe fiber will then also become more attractive.

And yesterday, there was news that the Federal Network Agency said that they want to cut back on regulation of Deutsche Telekom in 4 big cities. Can you also comment on that?

Well, maybe, Ferri -- no, let me start by answering the question on -- yes, yesterday. Now I think we can see that the broadband market in Germany is working well as I've been able to see for myself as the Head of the German business here over the past year. So the so-called , [indiscernible] the basic agreement is a step in the right direction. But then 4 cities are not enough. We will profoundly analyze the proposal by the Federal Network Agency and then issue a statement on it at any rate is a step in the right direction.

About broadband and rate adjustments. First, we're not doing that for all customers. We mainly focus on older calling plans. So we are talking calling plans dating back to the time before the Ukraine war and even before the COVID pandemic. And when you look at the past few years, you can see that the telecommunications industry in Germany did not increase prices in line with inflation.

And when you look at all the things that have happened in the telecom industry in all countries, then you will find that, yes, prices in England, in Switzerland and the Netherlands everywhere were adjusted in line with inflation. But it's not just about calling plans. And you know that all fiber players are facing the challenge that their investments in the fiber rollout need to amortize at some stage, and that also applies to us.

So much for broadband, now AI. We believe that we are in a position to help people actually use AI. And we have -- we are bold enough to test things. We've proven that on the basis of several offerings. We have incorporated AI into our systems. The colleagues from the U.S. also told us about something about AI in the networks recently. So things are in full swing here.

And we are testing things. And I can see that the use cases are becoming more specific from year-to-year. And the use cases are moving closer and closer to our core, which is our network. And I am optimistic that in the future, Deutsche Telekom will have a right to play in the AI sector as well.

Yes, let me add to this. We have a large portfolio of AI projects and products, both in consumer and B2B. Our internal goal is clear when it comes to increasing efficiency, but you also asked when will we be able to make money with it?

Well, at the last Capital Markets Day, we did come up with a clear-cut number, and that was EUR 700 million for Germany, Europe and T-Systems for all 3 segments. And that's what I also wanted to say in my presentation. We are actually ahead of the budget here. And that's -- so EUR 700 million, that's committed. And this comprises AI products and projects in the external market that are highly profitable for us. There's a great deal of demand, and we know that we can do this.

I am exchanging messages with Mr. [indiscernible]. So now we can hear him. Maybe you could speak up a little. It sounds as if you're speaking through a towel.

That's not what I'm doing. The Federal Network Agency invited you to give out frequencies to a fourth network operator. Do you think that we will see 4 network operators in future? Or will there just remain 3 in place?

Well, the Federal Network Agency, I'll put it this way. In 2025, we negotiated with 1 on 1. And now the Federal Network Agency made a proposal. The proposal is that now national roaming should be used, including a compensation of the network operators to the tune of EUR 2 million per year. That's the proposal. We believe that this is a step in the right direction. And now we have a couple of weeks' time to come up with a reaction, and we will, yes, make the most of that time.

Let me add to this. We can't really comment on this as we would like to because 1 and 1 would then probably take legal action. They don't want to see this discussed in public, which is why we have the best network in Germany, but 1&1 are trying to prevent us from telling our customers that our network is the best. So I would like to expressly thank 1&1 for making this such a big deal in public because in this way, we've been able to put across the message quite clearly to our customers.

I think my blog was read by around 500,000 people on this topic. So -- but 1&1 are highly sensitive about that. And that is quite reassuring for me, you see. As far as spectrum is concerned I think that companies offering the highest bandwidth and the fastest speeds are in the best position. And that's what we are doing.

Last year, we increased capacities for our customers once again. And I don't think you should strip such companies of Spectrum. Quite the contrary. And that's why our position, I think, is quite clear. We will do whatever we can to avoid giving up any Spectrum. It would be disastrous if the company offering the best network was to be punished, which would also mean that Spectrum would have to be passed on to others, which is unused. I mean, what has become of the 5G Spectrum? Take a look at it. This is my plea to the journalists here. My position is clear. We sold 400 megahertz. And of the 400 megahertz, around 200 megahertz remain completely unused as of today. That is not fair, is it? That's not the right thing as far as network coverage for the citizens is concerned.

I think policymakers need to do more to ensure a proper network coverage for the citizens.

Thank you. This brings us to the end of our conference. Let me just point out one thing. AI was mentioned several times today, and it will be mentioned even more often at the Mobile World Congress on Monday in Barcelona. We will have the Magenta keynote at 1:30 p.m. So you can either go to hall 3 in Barcelona yourselves or you might want to use our live stream in order to hear about the latest from us.

Some first reports already came out this week, and there will be more. We are doing more in the field of AI. And there's a range of interesting things that Aura will be presenting in Barcelona. And I would also like to mention that on the 1st of April, Deutsche Telekom shareholders' meeting will be held. I hope to see you again at one of these events. Thanks for joining us here today. We wish you all a pleasant day, and we're saying hello from Bonn.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Deutsche Telekom's Third Quarter 2025 Conference Call. With me today are our CEO, Tim Hottges; and our CFO, Christian Illek. As usual, Tim will first go through his highlights for the year-to-date, followed by Christian, who will talk about the quarterly performance and our group financials in more detail, and then we have time for Q&A.

Before I hand over to Tim, please pay attention to our usual disclaimer, which you'll find in the presentation. And please also note that this conference will be recorded and uploaded to the Internet. And now it's my pleasure to hand over to Tim.

Thank you, Hannes, and welcome to our results call for the first 9 months. Amidst various headwinds, we continue to deliver consistent, reliable growth. As usual, I will start with the year-to-date view for the group before Christian will dive into the details of the quarter.

In the first 9 months of 2025, we delivered 3.7% of organic service revenue growth, 4.4% organic EBITDA and 6.8% growth in free cash flow and 9.5% growth in adjusted earnings per share. With these results, we remain on track for the midterm targets of last year's Capital Market Day. Also today, we raised our guidance to reflect T-Mobile's guidance increase.

Despite a weaker than usual quarter in Germany, we talked about that last time, we keep our full year DT ex U.S. guidance unchanged, thanks to the good developments in other areas. We made progress with our strategic agenda in the U.S. with our successful acquisitions in Germany with a record fiber build, new collaborations and Europe's first industrial AI cloud across the Atlantic with significant progress in AI-driven digitization and our disciplined financial execution was recognized by Moody's with a credit rating upgrade to A3.

Last not least, the Board of Management is proposing a dividend increase of 11% to EUR 1 per share for 2025. In addition, we plan to buy back EUR 2 billion worth of our own shares in 2026 together amounting to a shareholder return of nearly EUR 7 billion. As you can see on the next page, all our segments are contributing to our EBITDA growth. T-Systems leads the table with 11.7% year-to-date EBITDA growth. DT ex U.S. grew by 2.9% in the first 9 months.

Moving on to our networks, where we continue to extend our leadership. In the last 12 months, we passed 3.6 million additional European homes with FTTH. We now nearly reached 23 million homes, of which nearly 12 million is coming from Germany. In the U.S., our joint ventures are delivering as expected, and we now have 934,000 fiber customers. Our mobile networks are leading across the footprint, and we are confident to maintain this leadership in all our markets.

Let me now dive a bit deeper into a German fiber plan. We made some encouraging progress this year. And I know this is a big question mark for you what we are doing here and how are we reacting on the developments. First, we passed a record numbers of homes year-to-date, plus 17%. We connected more homes than ever before, plus 9%. And we achieved this with lower total CapEx, resulting from fiber CapEx savings, minus 9%. We achieved the savings through a variety of measures, AI-powered digitization, I talked about that, process industrialization, more shallow digging and better purchasing. This slide here is to illustrate that our fiber build has become much more efficient. This is a very important building stone for our strategy going forward.

Another important building stone going forward is the tax benefited grant, which the German government developed over their accelerated depreciation model. We plan to reinvest this benefit into higher CapEx and thereby step up our fiber build-out without any changes in our DT ex U.S. free cash flow outlook as stated at last year's Capital Markets Day. So what do I mean by stepping up? First, we maintain our 2.5 million homes passed run rate. That's very important. We will increase the share of rural homes and the SDUs in the mix. And further, we will accelerate at homes connected with regard to the MDUs. So we are changing the way how we are building out fiber in our German footprint according to the current developments which we are seeing and the adoption rates of these fibers. With our new fiber strategy, we plan to strengthen our German broadband performance in the medium to longer term, both in terms of value and in connected volumes.

Based on the efficiency improvements, we have already seen and the tax relief granted us that we can deliver a more effective fiber build, increase our fiber CapEx in the coming years, while -- and this is very important, confirming our stated free cash flow outlook of EUR 3.6 billion in 2025 and EUR 3.7 billion to EUR 3.9 billion in '27. At last year's Capital Markets Day, we talked a lot about how AI is accelerating our digital transformation. Throughout the year, we have shown a lot of examples of our AI initiatives.

On Page 8, you can see that we have made further progress on all initiatives this quarter. We are seeing multiple strong use cases delivering tangible results. And this across the whole value chain of our companies in all our markets. I'm just coming back from a 5-day trip to Israel, where I have worked with our partners, with our ecosystem down there, how we can integrate their initiatives into our further digitization efforts. And I can tell you the agent model is offering us big time new opportunities, which we haven't considered yet.

At the Capital Markets Day for DT ex U.S., we estimated the financial benefits of around EUR 800 million in cost savings by 2027. Based on the progress already made, we are very confident in delivering this target and even see more potential, more upside here. Last week, we launched Europe's first industrial AI cloud together with NVIDIA with a combined investment of EUR 1 billion. This is Europe's largest AI factory to date, by the way, opening up in the first quarter next year already.

We also remain in the running for one of Europe's planned AI gigafactories, and we should talk about that later in the Q&A. Our customer growth continues on both sides of the Atlantic. Our mobile customer growth remained very strong with another record quarter in the U.S. And in broadband, we had a steady performance in Europe, while we suffered another small customer loss in Germany.

Moving on to ESG. Despite rising data usage, outside of the U.S., we were able to slightly lower our energy consumptions in the first 9 months. Our ESG commitment has been rewarded with various awards such as the NetFed Sustainability Award and the award for Corporate Engagement for our initiative against online hate.

Let's now move on to our guidance update on the next page. Our guidance remains based on last year's average of a foreign exchange ratio of $1.08. And as always, in the sum of the guidance for DT ex U.S. and for T-Mobile US adjusted by the U.S. GAAP IFRS bridge. T-Mobile once more raised its guidance for customer and financial growth, and we are passing this on in the group guidance today. T-Mobile raised its '25 EBITDA guidance by $300 million at the midpoint and its free cash flow guidance by $100 million at the midpoint. T-Mobile's new guidance now also includes the expected contribution from the recently completed acquisition of Metronet and UScellular. Our 2025 DT ex U.S. EBITDA guidance remains unchanged at $15 billion EBITDA and $3.6 billion free cash flow.

With that, let me now hand it over to Christian for a deeper dive into the third quarter.

Thanks, Tim, and hello, everyone. So as usual, I'm going to provide you with an overview on the segment performance in the third quarter and then present some selected group financials. And as usual, let's start with the U.S. who have reported their numbers already on October 23. And you know that those numbers include a 2-month contribution from UScellular. Still the numbers, I think, are really impressive. You've seen according to U.S. GAAP, a service revenue growth of 9.1%. If we're taking a look at the postpaid service revenues, they even grow at close to 12%, and this is coming from volume as well as ARPA growth and the core EBITDA grew at 5.6%.

Where is this all coming from? Take a look at the growth numbers on customers, and I think they are record-breaking. The postpaid net additions were 2.3 million, which was significantly higher than the consensus, which was 1.6 million. The postpaid account growth was almost 400,000, which is the highest number ever. The postpaid phone net adds were 1 million, which was also 150,000 higher than consensus and the best quarter since 10 years. And finally, the broadband net adds, which also include fiber, grew at 560,000. So I think what you've seen is a stunning customer result in the third quarter.

The churn rate actually grew slightly vis-a-vis the previous years. But bear in mind, it was the lowest one among the 3 MNOs, which we have in the U.S. And the ARPA is now expected to grow at 2% vis-a-vis 1.5% in the previous quarter. So based on these very strong results, T-Mobile once again raised its net add customer guidance. They now intend to get to 7.2 million to 7.4 million postpaid net adds, which is up more than 1 million at the midpoint relative to the last guidance. And the phone net add guidance has been increased to 3.3 million, which is also up by roughly 300,000 at the midpoint. So a very, very strong third quarter.

And now we're getting to Germany, a segment where we have to report some different figures, I would say. So if you take a look at the Q3 financials, you see there were impacted by prior year comps, but also by our cost phasing. And I indicated this already in the Q2 call that we have the double whammy coming from the wage increase, which obviously hit the EBITDA growth. So if you take a look at the headline growth in Germany, it's actually declined by 1.8%. And there are 2 factors which are responsible for this. In '24, you had the one-off revenues from the European Championships TV rights. And secondly, we have another, I would say, lower revenue contribution from third-party equipment sales, which are all low margin.

We're taking a look at the EBITDA growth, which is slightly above 0. You can say it's stable and it's the lowest since many, many years. This is coming from a very low contribution from service revenue where we're getting into and the double whammy from the wage cost headwinds. You know that we increased the first wage increase in October '24. And then we had the EUR 190 one-off payment starting from August, and they both collapsed together in the third quarter, impacting the EBITDA quite significantly. Both of those quarters, the service revenues, especially the comp factor, but also the wage increases will roll over in the fourth quarter. So for the fourth quarter, we expect an EBITDA growth of above 2%, of at least 2%, above 2%, 2% to 2.5% of -- it's definitely above 2% to reiterate this for this community.

Also, if we basically fast forward into 2026, bear in mind that we're not only facing headwinds from the wage cost increases, which are rolling over. We're also facing headwinds from the higher energy costs in '25. Both of them will obviously roll over in the next year and will help to support a better EBITDA result than the '25 EBITDA result. On top, we have launched an additional cost savings program, which is targeting only non-personnel costs, which will also support the EBITDA growth in Germany in the year '26.

Let's move over to service revenues. And you see it on the right-hand side, the service revenue growth in the third quarter '25 was really low at 0.4%. It was all driven or largely driven by the negative contribution from the fixed line business. And there are 2 major explanations for this. One is the comp from Q3 '24, which was largely driven by B2B business. You see that we have a very strong growth in the third quarter of the previous years. That obviously has an impact on the year-on-year growth for this year. And the second one is we have to actually acknowledge that the German economy is weak right now. And we're seeing this in the number of insolvencies in the German market. So I think this is also something which is impacting us in a negative way.

Secondly, the service revenue is impacted by the lower volume trends, which we're seeing in broadband, but also in wholesale. And this basically collapses to that negative growth in fixed line of negative 0.3% in this previous quarter in Q3. For Q4, we have a pretty high confidence that we're going to have a meaningful trend improvement. And for mobile service revenues, we absolutely remain consistent with the guidance which we have given, which is 2% to 2.5%.

Let's move over to the broadband revenues. And you see that the retail broadband revenues obviously have come down. Also, the wholesale revenues have come down, and this is pretty much driven by negative volume impacts. What you see is that the ARPA-up strategy, so the more-for-more strategy is working. The ARPA growth in the consumer space grew by 3.6% in the previous quarter. So upselling is working and has to contribute a large part of the broadband growth.

Despite the volume pressure, you see us discipline on pricing. We maintain our promotional period at 3 months. You know that we have taken this down since April. It was coming from 6 months. We have increased front book prices for single play between EUR 2.5 to EUR 3 a month. We also, in October, have increased the broadband front book prices by EUR 1. So we are playing the value game. We're playing the long game. We're not fighting for every incremental volume, and we hope that the market will stabilize in that sense.

On wholesale revenues, what you can see is there's a significant step down relative to the previous quarters. We are basically flat as we guided it to be at the Capital Markets Day, but we do not expect any significant deterioration in the upcoming quarter.

Let's move over to the fixed line KPIs. And you see that the monetization works upper right-hand side, 54% of our customer base on our customers with at least 100 megabits per second. And you see this continuous trend happening since quite a bit. And what you also see is that we're still not mitigating the negative broadband net adds. We're remaining at that 20% to 25% trend. And to be honest, we don't expect a significant improvement short term despite the fact that we're working on quite a significant amount of measures, which is digital retention management, extension of our distribution and more localized pricing.

But what is important is obviously, since the market is slowing down and since we are facing ongoing pressures from the overbuilder that we have readjusted our build-out strategy on fiber. We're not only spending more on fiber. We're shifting the mix towards more rural areas and SDUs because we know that the connection rate is coming in much faster than it is with the MDUs. And we're stepping up the initial connections of MDUs. Even if we don't have a customer, at least a home is prepared and we have a connection there so that we can actually act on customer demand fast.

So -- and you see that -- and I think that is kind of for me the bright spot in the quarterly numbers on the customer numbers that the fiber strategy is working off. We added another 155,000 fiber customers. This is the best quarter which we ever had. That remains the key focus area, and you know that we have given a commitment for '27 to add 1 million fiber customers over the course of the full year.

Let's move over to the mobile commercials. And you see we're back as we indicated in the last call, we know that we have elevated competition quite a bit, but our commercials actually remain strong. You know that in the second quarter, we lost a very large customers. We said we will return back to the, let's say, usual run rate, which is somewhere in between EUR 250 million to EUR 330 million. And you see us now coming in at EUR 314 million. And this is also driven by a lower churn rate, which has been reduced from 0.9% to 0.8%. So that is pretty much it on Germany. So not a very good result on Q3, but a much better outlook for the fourth quarter.

Let's move over to Europe. Europe has provided another excellent quarter, 31 quarters with consistent EBITDA growth. If we just take a look on an organic perspective, which is the lower part of the chart, you see that overall revenues grew by 2.2%, service revenues by 3.3%, and EBITDA has grown by 4.6%. You see that there is a sequential slowdown in the EBITDA growth, and this is obviously coming from the progressive rollover of inflation-driven price increases in some of the European markets.

Moving over to the commercials in Europe. I think what you see is overall very good results across all categories. I think one has to highlight that the mobile net add is actually being impacted by negative cleanup ahead of the Romanian disposal of 60,000. If you would basically exclude this, there would be close to 190,000 of customer growth in the mobile space. And you see also steady and strong performance in broadband and TV and in fixed mobile convergence.

Moving over to T-Systems. And T-Systems continues to be on a positive track. I'm really happy with the performance of T-Systems. Last 12 months order book is up close to 4%. The organic revenue is up by 3%. It's the middle column. If you take a look where it's coming from, T-Systems is actually benefiting from the AI-driven digital solutions, and we're talking quite a bit about AI, but also from the sovereign cloud services, which we're providing that supported this growth.

And they had a very stunning organic revenue growth of close to 23% in the previous quarter in Q3, gets us to a year-to-date EBITDA growth of close to 12%. And this is coming not only from top line growth, but also from cost efficiencies. But bear in mind, this is a project-driven business. So there's quite a bit of volatility in there. But I'm completely confident that they're going to make and beat their commitments they have given at the Capital Markets Day.

So that basically concludes my operational review, and we are moving over to the reported financials. I think, first and foremost, I think we have to acknowledge that we're negatively impacted by a weaker dollar. Last year, the dollar was at $1.10. This year, it's at $1.17. So it's a depreciation of $0.07. That impacts the reported figures. It's partly mitigated by the contribution from T-Mobile's M&A activities. And you see also that there is some phasing. But bottom line, I don't want to go through all the details here. I would say we're broadly on track with all of the targets. and you're going to see us confirming the CMD targets later on as well.

Moving over to the usual Q-over-Q annual comparison of free cash flow and net profit, and I'll keep it short. You see there's a reduction of 9% in the free cash flow. This is very much driven by 2 factors. One is the weaker dollar, which impacts us with negative EUR 500 million and a stronger CapEx volume. And you know that we, in the previous quarters, have reported kind of CapEx, which was below the average what you would expect in a given quarter, and there is a catch-up, which you can see here. And if you take a look at the year-to-date numbers, they grew at close to 7%. So this is very much in line with the increased free cash flow guidance Tim was talking about earlier on. Same holds true for the adjusted net profit. It grew by 14%, but very much driven by the financial result and despite a headwind from a weaker dollar.

Moving to the next page, which is leverage. So the overall, the leverage has increased by EUR 5 billion. Everything was driven and more than driven by M&A activities, which was obviously UScellular and Metronet. And you see the impact of EUR 8 billion. Nothing of the other contributions to the net debt are a surprise. You see us moving within the corridor, which we indicated, we're below 2.75, including leases. Excluding leases, we are 2.23, sorry for that. And I think that also led to the decision of Moody's to basically give us an upgrade in our rating. So I can only encourage the other rating agencies to take a closer look at our balance sheet and our financial discipline.

So finally, on the last page, the key takeaways, we're confirming our midterm adjusted EPS target, which is around EUR 2.5 by the end of '27. Tim was talking about the consistent reliable growth despite some headwinds which we are seeing in Germany. But other than that, I think all the other segments are performing well. We have confirmed our targets which we have given ourselves in the ex U.S. business, and we have increased the guidance in the U.S. business, and we confirm our midterm CMD guidance.

The flywheel works. We're working on our -- expanding our network leadership on both sides of the Atlantic. That drives customer growth as we've talked about this. And we have a massive initiative running on AI in order to not only drive efficiency but also top line growth. So I think this is something where you basically should remind us on every quarterly call, this is kind of what we call a drumbeat when it comes to AI.

We are reinvesting, and we weren't clear about this in the last quarterly call, we are reinvesting the German tax relief into CapEx and into adjusted fiber rollout strategies. We remain comfortable with our comfort zone in the leverage. And obviously, I think we have proposed an attractive shareholder remuneration package with an 11% dividend increase to EUR 1 and an up to EUR 2 billion share buyback program for the upcoming year.

With that, I hand it over to Hannes.

Okay. And now we can start with the Q&A part.

[Operator Instructions] I think we start with Andrew Lee at Goldman Sachs.

I had 2 questions. Two questions, one on capital allocation and one on the U.S. Just in terms of the capital allocation, you're obviously giving an 11% dividend growth guide for 2026. So I don't want to mean that and reloading on the EUR 2 billion buyback. But if we look at what that leaves -- where that leaves you in terms of your net debt to EBITDA for next year, even if we take out the positive effects on -- or the reductive effects of FX on net debt, you seem to be leaving yourself with more balance sheet flexibility into 2026 than you did a year ago. Could you just take us through why is that? What is the strategic flexibility that you need into 2026 that's maybe a greater pull on your balance sheet than last year and where that's coming from?

And then just secondly, on the U.S., clearly, that's been, along with Germany, a kind of major source of concern in terms of the sustainability of growth from investors. And that seems to have narrowed down into a major concern around your Verizon competitive intensity. The question is just pretty broad and straightforward. What's your take on the degree of change that we've seen in terms of imminent competitive threat in the U.S. market and risk to your to derailing the TMUS growth story?

So let me start with the capital allocation question. Andrew, we actually have a slightly different view. If the weaker dollar is rolling over, so to give you the calculation right now on the leverage ratio, the EBITDA is calculated at 1.13 and the debt is calculated at 1.17. If you basically adjust both of them for the same rate, which will happen over time, we are 2.72. This is one.

Second is, look, there's always projects coming up, which you don't know. And so for example, take a look at the Gigafactory, which we didn't have on the radar screen. And therefore, I want to have some flexibility. Thirdly, I think if you take a look at the shareholder remuneration program, which we have articulated yesterday, it's an 11% dividend increase. It's the highest dividend ever in the history of this company. And the EUR 2 billion share buybacks, if you assume that the EPS is around over the next 24 months at [ EUR 2.25 ], [ EUR 2.30 ], gets you an 8% yield on that share buyback program. But we feel comfortable with the volume, and we don't want to, let's say, be super volatile on this one. We want to be consistent.

So it's a combination of, first of all, we're not as optimistic on the leverage ratio as your calculation is. Second one, it's prudent. And thirdly, I think it's still an attractive program. Look, we are basically distributing EUR 6.8 billion next year, which is quite a significant number, at least from our point of view.

Just a quick follow-up on that, Christian. So the TMUS buyback is done, decisions are made on a seemingly quarterly basis. The DT buyback decision is currently on an annual basis. Can you see a time where that's made more flexibly, i.e., on a half yearly basis or quarterly? Or do you still expect to announce buybacks on an annual basis?

Both are being decided on an annual basis, but the programs are more flexible in the U.S. So we can course correct on the program. So for example, you know that we stopped the share buyback in the U.S. for quite a bit because we had a leadership change. And therefore, we have adjusted the share buyback program now for the remainder of the year. So the U.S. has more flexibility because we always have this freeze period or this grace period of 90 days. So we have to file 90 days before we actually can execute. So we have less flexibility on the ex U.S. side. but both programs are being decided on an annual basis.

Andrew, I do not want to tell you a fairy tale in investor call, but it's a little bit, let's say, the second question like the hedgehog and the rabbit. And if you look back, the U.S. market has always been very competitive. It is recently very much focusing on device promotions, and that is, let's say, where it's going. And we were a share taker in this environment over the next.

Now what we seen this quarter, it was that we were attracting more customers to us, and we had lower churn than before, which is resulting in a much better performance. We did that at the same time with a significant increase on our EBITDA growth with 6%, so which is giving us the opportunity to invest into the infrastructure and our network leadership has improved as well.

Now it is not only about, let's say, subsidization or the money which you put into the market. It has a lot to do about, let's say, how good you are perceived from a brand, how good your network is improving compared to the others. It is about, let's say, how you enter into the smaller markets or the rural areas, how you're attracting business customers or even the broadband customer numbers is quite encouraging. We will probably see 1 million next quarter already. So this is all, let's say, growth, which is not coming only from price competition, but as well from quality and investments which we have taken before.

Now coming back to the hedgehoc, I think we have heard about, let's say, the new announcement from Dan Schulman, which I know for years about what he is doing. And he has laid out his plans about that Verizon's ambition is to win back shares and moving away reasons to churn and focusing on customer centricity to grow his cash flow and his leadership over the next years.

Now this sounds very reasonable to me. But the hedgehog is on a path already. So he is already running in another direction. So I think they are all well at this point. But I think what Srini and what the team is doing is this way of finding a new digital customer experience the way of serving customers in a new kind of Un-carrier way. This way of surprising customers with new propositions, this is what we are about. It's not about, let's say, that this is wrong what these guys are announcing. But customers are looking on other things as well and what is new with their brands.

And I can tell you, I'm very encouraged about -- for instance, the efforts with regard to digitization. It's an outstanding achievement that 80% of the upgrades are done digitally within 1 year. So it shows to me even that the skills are within this company to reinvent the way how they're performing. They have cost potentials which they can reinvest. We have a super network leadership, which we have strengthened these days. All of this is coming together.

So we are used to competitive environments. I don't think it's only about money. It has a lot to do with propositions which we have played out very well in the last years. And we stay -- remain focused on a thoughtful balance of commercial and financial growth in the U.S. market.

Okay. Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Tim, and Christian. And move on to Ottavio at Bernstein, please.

Two questions. The first is on the domestic business. You highlighted the good performance on the ARPA. The 3.7% is welcome because that's compensated for your negative net adds. Today, you're somewhat guiding for a continuation of negative net adds, and therefore, the ARPU increase will be very crucial going forward. During the call, you attributed the main drivers to the upselling, not just the price increases. So your upselling will be very key for your growth.

So my question is, how fast you can increase that upselling because it's still running significantly lower than you project for 2027 for around 1 million. You go into rural. So the question is there, how much the increase because you said that rural would be a better take-up rates. So someone would expect that the overall take-up of fiber vis-a-vis the overall base will increase. So that should be good for ARPA. And also you can update on the plans by the German Digital Ministry to weaken the landlord ability to stop in-house fiber rollout. Last quarter, you were very vocal. And I don't know if it's still a discussion or any decisions been made because that I think will be crucial for you to improve the upselling and therefore, of course, to improve the ARPA trends going forward.

The second question, it's going back to the capital allocation strategy. But this time, I would like to do a bit more with numbers. You -- in the CMD, you're talking about a precise number, the EUR 15 billion surplus. I follow the logic. And at that time, you basically were thinking of unchanged gearing. And Christian, you've been very clear on the fact that 2.64 is misleading because you have to put the debt and the EBITDA on the same currency. That's fine. So if you do, you ended up effectively around the same gearing that you expect to go, 2.75.

So therefore, last year, you allocated around EUR 4 billion for additional shares into TMUS and the EUR 2 billion buyback of last year was already included. So the additional EUR 2 billion that you announced today will be against the surplus. So effectively, you used up around EUR 6 billion roughly or EUR 6.5 billion of the surplus. So my question is, there is still around EUR 8 billion left there. Now is the intention to see TMUS share price relatively low for you to go for more shares in TMUS rather than the buyback considering for last year? Or it's still undecided what are you going to do next?

Ottavio, complex questions, to be honest. So first of all, on the ARPA increase, I think if you basically go back into the previous quarterly reviews, you basically see a linear increase of customers adding faster lines. So obviously, we're working on better monetization, especially when it comes to fiber because as we're moving into SDUs, obviously, we can monetize that fiber much faster also if we connect on the MDUs, that should give a contribution.

The second one is obviously related to the price increases, which have recently been introduced, right? So you don't see any impacts on them right now. And obviously, we expect a net-net positive effect, which will drive also the revenue. And on the volume trends, look, I'm a finance guy. I'm a little bit conservative, let me put it this way. As long as I don't have line of sight, I don't want to promise you anything other than what you've seen in the previous quarters.

And therefore, we don't predict anything as long as we have good evidence that the volume trend is actually moving in the right direction. And it's not too far away, to be honest, right? Just -- let's assume it's 15,000 more, then you're getting closer to the 3%. Right now, I think the 3% to 4% broadband growth is not being achieved right now. But I think on a CAGR basis, we have no indication or at least we believe this is still an achievable target.

So this is the combination on how things are evolving. I don't know whether our signals to the markets like on single play on broadband will be received by others in -- let me put it this way, in the right manner. So that could help to basically go for a little bit of market repair. We will see whether it's going to happen. But that is kind of the basis we're working on.

And the biggest lever for us is churn management, right? If we get the churn management on our broadband base, just a notch down, that will immediately turn quite a bit on the volume. So this is kind of the equation. I can't give you a mathematical equation, but this is the equation on the levers we're working on.

Look, let me add update on the plans with German Digital Ministry. Yes, it is -- and I was, by the way, not vocal last week. I was vocal this morning already again in the press. It cannot be that we are paying the bill of building a fiber network, not only on the Level 4, but even -- sorry, Level 3, but even Level 4 in the houses. That we pay tons of money for connecting the country into the next-generation infrastructure and that then the landlords are sitting there and asking for a revenue share or asking for an installation fee for the apartments. If Germany really wants to get digitized, they have to support the environment.

And by the way, the German Digital Ministry is already on our side. He had put a paper [indiscernible] into the discussion, which is clearly enabling and accelerating the build-out in the multi-dwelling units, which is the main part of it. So to be honest, I cannot tell you when they're coming to decision. I have the feeling that the German government is under a lot of pressure and taking a lot of decisions every single day. Next week, on Tuesday, there is the digitization Summit with Chancellor Scholz and with Macron and a lot of, let's say, other players. I promise you, I will address this topic there again. And I have the feeling that there is a big understanding.

The problem here is that Vodafone is trying to defend their position in the houses with their coax, which is nothing else than copper, and this is not fiber. But I think more and more people tend to understand that, that they are not investing into the next-generation fiber, that they're just trying to defend their position here. And I make sure that we will, by the way, with the other fiber investors in Germany fight for this initiatives.

Let me make a general comment at the end because Christian laid it out. Guys, since the last quarter, 3 months, we have worked intensively, intensively on reshaping the way what we are doing with the fiber rollout. And we have laid it out in the presentation today that the CapEx per connection has gone down. We expect further reductions being possible. Second, that we are now changing the rollout areas. Thirdly, that we are building more fiber, multi-dwelling units, homes connected and more homes connected with regards to the SDUs, so in the rural areas and single households because we see here a higher acceptance rates.

Thirdly, to stop that the altnets are eating our cake. Fourthly, we have a total new go-to-market with regard to additionally to the ranges, we have now enabled our sales organization, our retail organization to meet people at their homes. Fourthly, we have allocated additional people to this one. On top of that, we have a new churn program, as Christian laid it out, and so on and so on. So we were very unhappy and we are unhappy with negative net adds. This is not acceptable. And therefore, I can promise you that there is a big program up and running within the financial commitments which we have given to improve the situation here in Germany.

So on the capital allocation, let me try to answer that question, at least partly. So first of all, we want to keep the flexibility. So if you take a look what I said earlier on, the share buyback program, which we decided or which we consulted with the Supervisory Board and obviously then decided on later, as a Board, will give us an 8% return, which is obviously a pretty good return relative to other means.

Secondly, what we have not decided yet, we want to keep that flexibility for good reasons on whether we should basically continue with the share buyback program beyond the EUR 2 billion we have just announced or basically put everything into the T-Mobile US shareholding. Look, none of us in the summertime would have estimated that the share is going down to $203, right? None of us.

So I think this flexibility is prudent to have and obviously, it has to be taken into account for. And the third one is, if you take a look at the current run rate, we indicated 4% to 6% EBITDA growth, we're around [ 4.4% ]. So we're not at the midpoint. So that -- obviously, that surplus is also coming down. And therefore, we take it -- let me put it this way, 1 year for another and explain why we're doing what we're doing instead of giving you a midterm outlook, what we're planning to do with the surplus.

Thanks, Christian. Thanks, Tim. And next, we move, I think, to Robert Grindle at Deutsche Bank.

Sorry, no video, it's usual WebEx versus the issue here. Two questions on the increased attention to fiber in rural areas and stopping the altnets, eating your cake as you say, Tim. Are you thinking more greenfield sites here or looking to defend in areas already under threat from the competitor build?

And secondly, you acquired a call option over 10 million TMUS shares owned by SoftBank last month. Is there an ongoing cost to that? Have you thought about buying out the residual stake?

It's both, is the answer. There is greenfield. I mean, basically, we're looking at areas which are most likely to be overbuilt and then we build there. That's kind of a big part of this change in mix. And if it involves overbuild of an existing plant where we feel that we have an attractive interest business case, then it will involve overbuild.

With regards to the SoftBank question, at the beginning of October, SoftBank granted DT 10 million call options in TMUS that can be exercised at market price until -- and now listen April 2029. This is a very, very long-term option. And you know that we have a very good partnership with these guys, which has worked even without buying them out. So there is no read across to our target TMUS stake.

What I can tell you, this is more a sign of the partnership, which we have built for a much longer-lasting relationship. So that said, as stated at the Capital Markets Day, TMUS stake increased remain one of the preferred uses of any surplus capital alongside M&A and DT level share buybacks. And therefore, there's nothing to say. The only thing is I think there's no need to make any kind of short-term speculation on activities here.

Great. And with that, I think we move to Paul Sidney at Berenberg.

I had 2. Firstly, we've seen more and more European telcos announcing their AI initiatives, talking about data centers, et cetera, yourselves, you're partnering with NVIDIA going live in Q1 next year. So I was just wondering, is it possible to put some numbers around this opportunity? I'm not looking for specifics, but just in terms of what the opportunity could be for Deutsche and perhaps the industry?

And then secondly, you're one of the last European telcos to report. And on our calculation, European service revenue growth has worsened versus Q2. I was just wondering, what do you think yourselves and your peers need to do in Germany and the rest of Europe to maintain healthy service revenue growth and keep it in positive territory. We talk about value over volume playing a value game, prices are going up. But a lot of this stuff just doesn't really seem to stick. And I just wonder, it would be great to get your views on what you think the industry needs to do or change.

Okay. So I think, first of all, there is no single answer for each country. I think you have to take each country, country by country. And let me start with the largest one. Look, the indication, Paul, which we have given to the market is we would appreciate market repair in broadband, right? And we're doing this both on single play, where obviously, we don't have a lot of competition, to be honest.

But also in broadband, and we have to see whether actually the other guys are following this direction, yes or no. We don't know. We cannot influence this. But I think in a slow growth market like the broadband market in Germany, that is the only way that you either upsell or that you have market repair on the overall market. And I think as the market growth rates, especially in broadband are coming down, it's not true for every Eastern European market, by the way. I think I would clearly favor value over volume.

In mobile, it's a different answer. You've seen the net adds from our 2 competitors, negative 1 and plus [ 157 ]. Our segmentation is working, the conjunction of B2B vis-a-vis B2C and the separation between, let's say, single households, which are predominantly addressed by Congstar and family plans, which are predominantly addressed by the first brand, it's working out just fine. And this is why we're growing where the others are not growing. So therefore, I think we don't see any necessity right now to basically change that proven model, especially given the fact that we have our network optimization program, Nemo, which gives us the capacity to actually fuel those future demands.

So I think you have to answer this country by country. And to be honest, I wouldn't be in the position to give you an answer in every European country. But overall, I think it's only working if the market, let's say, environment is also reacting in a rational manner. Because what you're seeing in many markets is that GDP growth is much faster than, for example, mobile service revenue growth. And I think that shouldn't be -- given the importance of that service, which we're providing, that shouldn't be the case. So we have to work on and especially market leaders have to work on repairing the market and actually getting the right value from the service.

And then it's all about value-added services, especially in the B2B space, right? It's, for example, adding security on top. Security is a massive issue across the Board, especially for smaller companies because they don't have the capabilities to basically have an own staff, which is dealing with that security by adding IoT services on top, where we're seeing quite a significant volume impact here. So these are the things where I would say in our core business, I was just talking about mobile and fixed, how you basically put additional and adjacent services on top.

Tim?

I'd like to address your AI question. Look, by the way, the first one is you mentioned that telcos are going into AI on Giga in AI initiatives. Yes, that's true. But then you mentioned NVIDIA as an example, which is data center capabilities. In this case, I would say no, because Deutsche Telekom is the trailblazer here in this industry. I don't know whether others are following, but we are the early mover in this environment. There's not a single other telco who had made a commitment or partnership with NVIDIA committing 10,000 GPUs being available from first quarter 2026 for the industries here in Europe already.

So let me talk about the AI Gigafactory for the first step. I think this is where we are unique. Maybe Telecom Italia is a little bit comparable here because they have this governmental commitment that all the data is moving into their inference centers, data center infrastructure. But no GPUs so far as I know it. We have now the partnership with NVIDIA, where we started with 10,000 GPUs. And I think Jensen and NVIDIA selected it very wisely because they are going to the industrial core of Europe, which sits in Germany. They're going to us and with us with the biggest market access to business customers.

We can offer a sovereign solution, network infrastructures, the [indiscernible] 400 giga -- connectivity coming from us. The data center infrastructure is something which we know already because we are running 186 data centers across the globe. I'll go into that in a second again. The sovereign cloud, which we are offering already is now almost a decade in the market. So well known to a lot of, let's say, classified services.

Our partnership with SAP on the BTP side is enabling the customers with their applications to go into this ecosystem. And NVIDIA is providing their latest Maxwell chips into this industrial environment in Germany. So I think this is a great opportunity now for us to see how the Industry 4.0 is becoming real in automation and digitization here.

For us, this is a kind of good learning case. for the next step, which is the AI Gigafactory. Together with our partner, Brookfield, we have submitted a consortium bid for this Europe's planned AI Gigafactories. The size of the location is expected to be around 100,000 GPUs. We expect any investments here together with them off balance. But nevertheless, the distribution and the go-to-market will be facilitated by our T-Systems arm. So therefore, this is a big opportunity for us even to participate in this new high compute and digital ecosystem. We call it physical AI or we call it, let's say, participating in this environment of robots and the Industry 2.0, however you want to call it.

Look, we do that step by step. We do that with strong partners. So it's not that we are going alone here and in a big risk. And this is a big opportunity. Now you can judge what you get for 10,000 GPUs on the market price today for revenues that would give you an indication about how much money we earn with that. We have a deal with NVIDIA that almost 50% is getting invested from them, 50% from us, and we have a revenue share model established so that we are cautious with regard to all the upfront investments here. But I think this is a unique proposition, which gives us as well credibility for the second step, which is the Gigafactory.

On top of that, by the way, Maincubes, and sometimes we always forget that, Maincubes is with over 200 megawatts of capacity in operations or in development in Frankfurt, in Berlin. And GreenScale, it's another subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom and is with 170-megawatt project in Ireland and a 300-megawatt project in Norway on its way. So it's -- this is something where I think Deutsche Telekom is building on their infrastructure experience, something new where we have a lot of, let's say, competencies already scaling it up. And we only scale with commitments from customers. That's the good thing in this industry. It's not that we have to build a mobile network first, and then we will see whether we get customers. So we will learn on the run.

So I think, yes, that's an opportunity for T-Systems business. Yes, we want to do that as cash cautious and CapEx cautious as well for our business frontline. And -- but nevertheless, we want to -- under the frame of building sovereignty for Germany, we want to scale that here in our industrial environment.

Thanks, Tim. To be clear, Maincubes and GreenScale are held through DTCP, right? And thanks for the questions. And we move on with James at New Street, please.

So actually, the first question I'd like to ask is to follow on precisely, Tim, from what you're actually just talking about that. I'm excited to learn more about the kind of NVIDIA project because the financial analyst would like to just go a bit further on the numbers from what you said just now. So I think the initial project with NVIDIA, you said it's about EUR 1 billion, of which maybe now Deutsche Telekom is going to be putting in 50% of that. But you said you could scale up with Brookfield now to 100,000 GPUs. Could we take that as saying that if that's successful, that becomes a EUR 5 billion investment we see from Deutsche Telekom? I would therefore love to just also understand a little bit more about some of the specifics about how you see the return on capital on that project.

And then the second question I had, maybe one for Christian. But Christian, in one of your answers earlier, you seem to link the EUR 15 billion of surplus capital that could be used to the EBITDA growth of 4% to 6% range. So I suppose the question is, if actually EBITDA ends up being at the lower end of that range of 4% growth, what does that imply for the EUR 15 billion of surplus capital? And is there actually a commitment that all that money would be spent somehow by the end of 2027?

Do you want to start?

Look -- by the way, I'd like to start with the first question. Again, these are 2 separate projects. The first project is 10,000 GPUs. It's going to be a data center being based in Munich. It is using an existing facility, which we have renovated. It's 3, 4 floors under the city. It is using 100% renewable energy and cooling from water, which is available. This 10,000 GPUs is something which we have in our planning, in our financial envelope, which we have laid out. No additional funding or concerns which you should have with regard to the envelope which we have laid out.

The -- this project is now the first step. And that is, by the way, 100% on balance because this is a project which we run out of the system. The project #2 is the planning and the preparation for the AI Gigafactory, which is a European RFQ for 6 data centers across Europe, where the EU is committing to a certain utilization of their public domain data on this -- in this environment. In this case, we are planning an off-balance solution. In this case, we are not planning automatically, let's say, a high ownership on the infrastructure investments because we have said that we are going to take Brookfield as a partner into this ecosystem who is taking, let's say, a significant portion of the investments. We might even consider other partners who are building this infrastructure.

It is too early to give you now the financial construction about how that is taking place, but the infrastructure will be built off balance. And it will be supported with public sector money or utilization, which is helping that. We are now in the selection of the real estate. We are in selection of where we are building it. We are in the selection about how this consortia would look like. There's an application, which is taking place in January. Then there is the decision from theEuropean Commission who is taking the offer. And then we will see whether we are successful or not. Until then, we will decide on -- the financials is something which we then have to release at a later stage, but not -- it's too early now. Let's focus on the Munich side first then.

So James, without declaring the detailed numbers, what is our planning assumption. Obviously, you can assume that we haven't built on the low end nor on the upper end on the EBITDA corridor. But there are several factors which are basically impacting the surplus. The second one is obviously our adjusted EPS because that impacts our dividends and the adjusted EPS is very much driven and impacted by the U.S. dollar. At the time where we have given the Capital Markets Day, we said we don't see any auction in the U.S. in the foreseeable future after the One beautiful Bill Act. Obviously, there will be spectrum made available in the U.S. You see there's quite a bit of activity also on the satellite side from SpaceX. So these were things which can also be used for that surplus.

So -- and in that given chart, which I presented, I said it's predominantly meant to be used for either share increases or buybacks on the DT side -- share increase on the U.S. side or buybacks on the DT side, but we also want to have strategic flexibility in terms of assumptions are changing. And especially when it comes to U.S. spectrum, I think I would say we don't see a spectrum auction up until end of '27, I would be less optimistic that this is going to happen given what we know right now. So therefore, this is how we want to use the surplus, and this is why we are wake in how we want to use the proceeds.

Thanks, Christian. And with that, we move on to Polo at UBS, please.

I've got 2 questions. The first question is Rodrigo Diehl has taken over as CEO of Germany. But can you comment on how the strategy for the German unit is evolving? And what are Rodrigo's priorities? You've obviously already flagged a change in terms of the German fiber strategy, but what else is changing in the German unit?

Second question is actually just on Starlink. So investors have had a number of questions on how Starlink will impact both broadband and the mobile markets in both Europe and the U.S. So I'm just interested in your perspective. Do you see Starlink as complementary? Or do you expect Starlink to take share?

Look, I'd like to start with Rodrigo. And I told you that we're going to see a reinnovation of our team within Deutsche Telekom over the next years, and that is taking up here. And I have to say I'm very, very happy how the first weeks with the new team is. Being at Srini now in the U.S. with all his experience and his track record in Europe and Germany, plus his insights into fiber, being at Rodrigo now in Germany, taking over the lead. He's, by the way, hiring a new B2C head, who is there, the former Congstar manager, which we have seen.

And then we have Abdu, who is the new CTO in the group, another young man with a lot of experience running or being in charge for the infrastructure and the network before. And we have a new CIO in the group, KD, who is coming from India with all his experience about using AI for software development and accelerating this business. There are a lot of people who are now trying to build their own legacy, and that is definitely something which is very encouraging.

What we have talked or discussed today about the new direction with regard to fiber is definitely Rodrigo's work. He has intensively spent the first weeks on looking what is working, what's not working, how can we improve the homes connected, how can we improve the take-up rates on the numbers. I do not want to repeat all the initiatives which we are driving here these days. So that was, I think, a tough start for him. He's as well focusing on B2B and the capabilities of stepping up in new services beyond connectivity because traditionally, this market is somewhat competitive on the pricing side on the connectivity.

And the third thing is he's very much focusing on culture in the organization. So the way of becoming more uncorporate, this element about becoming more collaborative across the teams. And the third one, digitizing the efforts, digitizing the organization, using AI, modernizing the way of how we're doing things, learning from the U.S., by the way, in this regard. This is something which he's driving actively at that point in time. So I think these are already 4 big initiatives, which is on. So we will bring him up into one of the investors call next year to get to know him, but I gave him some relief to work first on the operations and on his team before he's coming here and committing. But what you see, what we are announcing today is already his work.

With regard to Starlink, to be honest, we can now highly speculate about what's going on there and what is Starlink doing and where is he going to. The first thing what I want to say is that Starlink -- and for us, very much relevant is the direct-to-sell connectivity. And this is definitely a very attractive complement to our wireless service. Because in the U.S., in large parts of the country, there are no mobile infrastructure, there are no emergency calls possible. And for this service, Starlink entirely makes sense. That is why we made that deal and why we're collaborating with them on the Gen 1. They are using our spectrum in this regard. So that is then possible that you have an immediate connectivity in these areas. I think that's very important to know that this has to play on the same bands as the bands which you're having in the phone. Otherwise, you have a very complicated switch and a complete registration service.

The second is Starlink has now stepped up by buying Dish EchoStar spectrum. So for Gen 2, my understanding is this will not be deployed before '28, '29 with new satellites. With this, they might have a different position to play because they have more spectrum. But we should not forget that satellite providers are fighting with some technical issues as well. The first one is that there are limitations with regard to the capacity. Look, we have today 350 megahertz of spectrum, while these guys are coming with 40, 50 megahertz of spectrum. Second, they have latency issues. Thirdly, they have disruption caused by weather or line of sight issues compared to the networks. And in the cities where you have this dense traffic, it's very hard to substitute our services.

So I see that as a very logical adjacency for telecommunication operators. We are very interested to further collaborate with Starlink as we did in the past. In Europe, the situation is -- and by the way, whatever we are talking about is very much U.S. because the spectrum which he has now is very much American spectrum. It's less of really globally used spectrum. The one which globally is available from EchoStar is for renewal in 2027, at least for a lot of European markets. So there are regulatory discussions coming up.

With regard to the rest, European, I think the homes in Europe are much better served by terrestical services than in the U.S. So the substitution risks to a fiber line from satellite, I don't see that. It is only for houses which are really, let's say, rural, unconnected. In this case, a Starlink might make sense. But if you have a fiber or a 5G coverage at your house, I don't see a big risk on this one. On top of that, spectrum for Europe is limited in this regard as well. So it's not that they can have unlimited spectrum for satellite. So I would say the market potential in the U.S. is in this very uncovered areas. It is an adjacency to communication, mobile communication services. And in Europe, I really see that as a niche play.

Okay. Thanks, Tim. And now we move on to Josh at BNP -- Exane BNP Paribas.

The first was just on the updated fiber strategy and the second on fiber CapEx. So on the fiber strategy, it looks like you're playing a mixture of offense in the MDU areas and defending more in the rural areas. Is that a fair characterization of how this new strategy has evolved? And perhaps to help us think about the impact of this. Could you maybe give us a bit of a steer on what your market share in MDU areas is, what your market share in some of the rural areas you're now targeting is and how that compares to your nationwide broadband market share would be very helpful.

And then secondly, on the fiber CapEx, I know you haven't quantified this explicitly, but I think you were due to receive a tax benefit of about EUR 0.5 billion over the next 3 years from these fiscal rule changes. Is that the right proxy for how we should think about the increased fiber CapEx? Would you go above that tax saving envelope as it were to do more fiber if you needed to? And beyond 2027, should we now be thinking of EUR 100 million, EUR 200 million higher German CapEx as a fair run rate? Or is this really just a pull forward of more expensive homes that you would have gotten to later in the decade anyway?

I start with the second question. And I will never call this a pull forward if the build-out is not ready by 2030. So what kind of pull forward are we looking for then? So I would say an indication of around EUR 200 million a year is, I think, a good indication. So I would use this as a proxy. We haven't finalized our planning session yet completely nor have we discussed it internally. But I think that is -- so the EUR 500 million, maybe EUR 550 million, something around EUR 200 million is the right indication for an annual, let's say, increase of the envelope. But it's not going to be a pull forward because that program is running for so long that I wouldn't call this a pull forward.

On the other hand, tax benefit from the accelerated depreciation comes to an end in 2028, the -- from 2028, the corporation tax rate in Germany will come down progressively by 5 percentage points, which is also then resulting in a tax relief -- in progressive tax relief. So if you -- therefore, there is a longer time line for this equation that we have outlined today, although we have basically been specific on the next 3 years.

Since we're playing ping pong here, I think we're hopeful that this accelerated depreciation will be extended, especially if you see that the money which you basically get is being reinvested into Germany, and we can prove that. And I think that's a good argument to basically make this like the immediate expensing in the U.S. a more permanent vehicle or tool.

Look, the answer to your first question is, you're right. In the rural areas, we have to defend our position. If you look that they are very stable and gaining market share from us where we are not covering. In these areas, we have traditionally high market shares, and we want to stop that bleeding by building out in these rural areas.

And in the MDUs, we have a lot of MDUs where we have homes passed, but we have no homes connected. If you ask me about, let's say, the market share in MDU areas, it's traditionally very low because this is Vodafone area and the cable area. So therefore, we have their opportunity to grow market share. And if you ask me about, let's say, where can we invest in this area, I would call the mix would be with this additional money 50-50 in MDUs connected and in rural areas as well. So it's not -- I've just looked up the numbers here, so it's around 50-50, if that helps you.

So I think that is the new allocation of the additional money. What we urgently need is definitely this kind of getting access to the apartments and to the houses. That's definitely something which -- where we need the political support. Otherwise, these investments are very difficult to monetize. But anyhow, we should give you an update about all the details when implemented. I do not want to release all details here because that from a competitive angle is as well something relevant for us that we have a little bit surprise factor as well.

Okay. With that, we move on to -- thanks, Josh. We move on to Carl at Citi, please.

Two questions, please. Firstly, in Germany, on the wholesale access revenues, what drove the slowdown in Q3 or recognizing that your CMD guidance was stable? Maybe the better question is why was the wholesale access revenue growing faster than anticipated in the first half?

And then secondly, I was wondering if you can talk a bit about T-Systems, both the growing disparity between public sector and corporate revenue growth rates and also EBITDA growth. I'm used to talking about margin dilution in enterprise telecoms divisions. So can you talk a bit to the margin growth you're seeing there? Year-to-date, margins have improved by 100 basis points. Is that just phasing? Or are we seeing a structural shift in T-Systems margins going forward?

Look, on the wholesale side, our capital markets guidance was for stable wholesale access revenues for the period of 2023 to '27. That is what we always have said. So far, we have outperformed the guidance. But now we're seeing volume losses overcompensating ARPA growth in these areas. And that is mainly coming from the weakness of our competitors in the broadband area. So it's a little bit, let's say, the indirect impact of the development of the retail broadband situation here in Germany.

In the third quarter ' 25, our wholesale access revenues were essentially stable. So we are expecting somewhat a similar picture for the next quarter. And here, we are focusing on monetizing our fiber footprint with our partners as well. So what we are doing for us should be, let's say, accessible and available for our wholesale partners as well. So Telefonica or Hansenet or alike. And we are discussing now how they can improve their fiber utilization as well. But so far, I think -- I know that we are in line with our expectations here.

So Carl, let me try to give you an answer. I'm not sure whether I'm satisfying or whether you're going to be satisfied with the answer. Look, first of all, we have a mix of different businesses within T-Systems. So you have infrastructure-like business like the cloud services business or the road charging business, which is obviously very much depending on the capacity utilization of a given infrastructure. The second one is digital solutions, which is predominantly driven by utilization and rate card performance, right? How good is your pricing lever you're providing to your customers, completely different businesses.

The third one is the team around Ferri is laser-focused on efficiencies. So he's probably one of the hardest guys when it comes to cost reduction because he knows that his margins are razer sharp and thin. So therefore, he has to prepare also for quarters where things are not happening the way how he wants to see it. And the fourth topic is the nature of projects. Look, first of all, it's the mix I was talking about, whether it's infrastructure-led or more digital solutions led.

Obviously, digital solutions coming in with lower margins relative to the infrastructure. The second one is, do you have a lot of A-deals, which are very large deals? Or do you have a contribution from smaller deals who usually have a better profitability. This is why I was causing (sic) [ cautioning ] you don't read too much into that 23% EBITDA increase because there's volatility coming from different angles, and you don't know how the business mix is going to look like in the upcoming quarters. And therefore, it's much, much harder to predict relative to the infrastructure business, which we're running outside T-Systems.

But what I'm seeing is, look, we're coming from negative cash contribution from T-Systems, and we are now in positive territory. The operating free cash flow is actually growing. And I think this is where I'm saying as a finance guy, I don't expect you to give me 10% of the overall pie on EBITDA, right? But I want to see a continuous trend improvement so that we don't have to discuss T-Systems as a financial, let's say, challenge. And they are helping us in kind of pull-through by selling other businesses because they're solving complex issues, especially with the public sector.

For example, remember the COVID app, which was basically being built between T-Systems and SAP that helps you in those sectors. So this is kind of a pull-through effect, I would say, you're going to have from the infrastructure business. So this is why I'm happy, but I can't give you kind of an equation whether it's accretive or dilutive because it depends on the mix of the business, which is coming in every quarter and that changes.

Okay. Thank you, and thanks, everyone, for the Q&A, which is now coming to an end. I think Tim would like to make a few closing remarks, and then I take back from you.

Thank you for the questions. Look, my summary of this quarter and even looking for the end of the year is, this is -- everything is well on track with regards to the overall capital markets targets. We had this concern about the German broadband market. We have a great plan now worked out, which is in execution. We have a good team, which is now pushing for that one, young fresh leaders here. On top of that, we are able to increase our dividend to EUR 1, which is another commitment. It is the highest dividend ever paid in the history of Deutsche Telekom. And on top of that, we are committing to the share buyback, which was highly and well received from the market environment.

All the acquisitions are well on track. No kind of negative surprise. The opposite is the case. For instance, with UScellular, we have a very good development as lighting out one issue. And we have cleaned up the portfolio again because after a long, long painful period, Romania is out of the portfolio, which is now -- which has now resolved as well.

And then the Deutsche Telekom is quickly taking the opportunity of the sovereignty discussion here in Europe, where we see big opportunities. There is definitely the AI factory, which I want to mention here. We were able to develop this whole concept to implementation, ready to use within 6 months, 10,000 GPUs. That is the biggest GPU in Europe at one single place. And on top of that, it's increasing the capacity of GPUs in Germany by 50% in one single step. And I can tell you, this is giving us huge credibility, not only in the public environment, but as well for business use. And we are going in the defense sector, both on the T-Systems side and as well on the DT Capital Partners side, which is helping.

And the last thing which I want to mention is expect more from us with regard to AI and the AI implementation. Great ideas in the organization, agent models enabling new opportunities here for us, which we are evaluating a strong momentum here in our company, good use cases and success cases as well from the U.S. now swapping over here to Germany and other markets. So next year, it's going to be an AI year. And that is something which is helping us to not only increase our customer retention, but as well our efficiencies here, which is well on track.

So I'm overall very happy with the situation here. We will do everything to improve the financials, not doing the stupid and ridiculous things here, and we like to thank you for your trust. And have a nice day, guys.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you. And now just if you would like to ask further questions, please contact the IR department. And we look forward to hearing from you again and see you soon. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues here in Bonn, we're reporting today on the Q3 figures. Christian Illek, the CFO of Deutsche Telekom; and Tim Hottges, the CEO, will -- and Tim will start as usual.

Thanks, Philipp. Good morning, everyone. I think everybody is aware that our market environment is not easy. Every day, you can read up on this in the media. Investments are being cut back everywhere. Dividends are cut back or companies are downsizing their workforce. That's no cause for celebration.

I've just come back from Tel Aviv. I spent 5 days in Tel Aviv and the momentum that I saw there, I would wish that we had the same. So this is not nice generally, but I'm all the more pleased to be able to paint a different picture today, and I'm happy that Deutsche Telekom is doing very well.

Now we are delivering, and we are acting, and that's the most important thing to be reliable, fixated on growth. We're keeping our word. We remain on course. In terms of our capital market targets, we're acting the first 9 months of 2025, we've delivered strong results, 3.7% organic revenue growth in the service business, 4.4% organic growth in EBITDA, 6.8% growth in our free cash flow and 9.5% growth in the adjusted EPS. That's an important metric.

So that means we are fully on track in terms of what we promised to the capital market and our investors. Of course, we are benefiting very strongly from T-Mobile US. I mean that's just a fact. It's our biggest business.

Our colleagues across the Atlantic have already raised their guidance. And today, we are following suit. Our full year guidance for business outside of the United States remains unchanged. And we want our shareholders to benefit, too. And this is why we are sharing this success with them.

The Board of Management is planning to increase the dividend for the business year 2025 to EUR 1. And this makes it the highest-ever dividend payout in our company's history. We will additionally buy back shares worth up to EUR 2 billion. Now in total, this will create a total shareholder return of almost EUR 7 billion.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have also made good progress strategically across all regions. In the United States, we have not only maintained our growth path, but accelerated it with a series of successful acquisitions. In Germany, we continue to invest in the future in a systematic way with a record-breaking fiber build-out, with Europe's first AI factory, we are showing that in Europe, this is possible. And you also attended the press conference with NVIDIA, high-performance technology is being built in Germany as well.

Now in all areas of German telecom, we are now using AI in customer service, in internal knowledge management, in sales and technology. But coming back from Israel, I can tell you and seeing the momentum there in digitalization, I have come back with a lot of energy and want to accelerate things in our company as well.

Our key financials are trending well as well. Our earnings are growing year-on-year in all segments organically. T-Mobile US adjusted core EBITDA stands at 6.8%. In Germany, while we are growing by 1.4%, we are below our expectations from the Capital Market Day. So following my speech, Christian Illek will comment on this.

Growth in Europe is at 5.9% and our Systems Solutions business has developed very well, growth of 11.7%. And so the total group is definitely on track.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are the network, and we are the best network. And I think everybody in Germany is aware of that. We can see it from all of our surveys, but we are making the network better every single day. In the past 12 months, we have reached 3.6 million additional households in Europe with our fiber network. That's almost 23 million people that can now subscribe to a fiber-optic connection from us or have already signed up.

A particular focus of our attention is Germany, of course. Here, we are approaching the 12 million mark for homes passed, and we continue to invest in expanding the network.

2025 has already been a record-breaking year for us. Never have we passed so many households, 1.7 million in the first 9 months of this year. Never have we connected so many customers, 474,000 homes connected. And all this, thanks to a more efficient build-out, making use of tools like artificial intelligence to speed up our planning at lower cost, which means that our strategy is paying off. We are building out faster, smarter and more sustainably.

And also, we participate in a tax benefit from the accelerated depreciation expense. Here, the federal government really has delivered, and we will reinvest these additional funds, this financial gain in its entirety. I think this is a clear commitment that we are showing here that the incentives coming from the federal government are really a good thing, and we will keep investing these additional funds in the fiber build-out.

At the same time, we want to continue adding 2.5 million homes passed every year. We will focus even more strongly on connecting rural areas. That's more expensive when it comes to the build-out, and that's why we need these additional funds. And we want to connect more multi-dwelling units also. We want these lines to be used also. So a focus on MDUs and also, we want to strengthen our broadband business in the long term.

Optical fiber is the technology of the future. These days, only -- there are only a few skeptics now and the science-backed arguments for this technology speak volumes. Just last week, the German Professional Association for Optical Fiber, BUGLAS, published a comparative study of cable networks versus optical fiber. And the findings are fiber offers up to 20x faster upload speeds, data packets travel 2.5x faster from the terminal equipment to the server and back; more users and more data traffic are no problem because fiber is scalable. But the underlying problem with the fiber build-out is not a fundamental skepticism about the technology itself, but unfortunately, the much too low take-up rate for lines.

And I mean, our vectoring and super vectoring network in Germany is so good and has been accepted so well. Many people are quick to criticize a lack of fiber build-out in various German regions. But once it arrives, the numbers of people signing up are extremely modest. And so the fiber build-out remains incomplete. So this is also a thorn in the side of the Federal Digital Ministry. We, therefore, explicitly welcome the government's recently launched information campaign.

Fiber build-out is a marathon and not a sprint. The more support we receive, the better. For example, it would help us if government would commit itself to using fiber exclusively. Government could also give us a helping hand with legislation, for example, by allowing a build-out in multi-dwelling units by law or by accelerating approvals. Simpler, more digital by actually making it possible to do more, we are definitely willing to do that.

The United States is a prime example of how different it can be. There, our fiber joint ventures are growing as planned, serving more than 930,000 customers with hyperfast fiber. And with Srini Gopalan, T-Mobile US, as a new CEO, who knows the build-out challenges like nobody else.

And what about mobile communications? Here, the situation is very clear. We are clearly in the lead as attested most recently by trusted brands such as Computer Bild in Germany, Ookla in Austria, Poland and Greece, Umlaut in Greece and Opensignal in the United States. So we are winning all the tests that are supported by their publications, and we're very proud of that. But our expectation is to maintain this leadership in all of our markets and even to extend our lead project NeMo in Germany, for example, is a prime example of that.

Our customers recognize that our networks are first class, and they are rewarding us for this. In the United States, we're excited to be setting records in the wireless sector. More than 5.4 million people signed up for a plan with us in the first 9 months. These are postpaid contracts. And just look at prepaid as well, that's 1.3 million net additions of customers more than in the prior year period. In Germany and Europe, our mobile contract net additions reached more than 1.2 million. You can see that our flywheel, our strategy is really paying off.

Broadband business in Europe is growing solidly, although it slowed slightly in Germany. Competition in this field is intense. But as I outlined before, we have a new approach on the fiber build-out, and this is how we are going to tackle this now.

Ladies and gentlemen, we won't stop. This is one of our guiding principles, which also means we will keep investing in Germany as a place to do business in the future in artificial intelligence. In January next year, we will open an AI factory in Munich. Our new AI industrial cloud is being built in the heart of Munich, deep underground, ultra-modern, state-of-the-art technology and open for start-ups, SMEs, industry, research and the scientific community, powered by 100% green electricity, with the combined computing power of 2.3 million computers.

And I can tell you one thing. This is what many digital experts in Israel are envious of the kind of capacity we can make available to industry here. This project is Made for Germany. It's a play on words that we're using in our communication. We are bringing together the biggest specialists in this field, Deutsche Telekom, NVIDIA, SAP and other partners. Between the initial idea and the launch of this just 6 months have passed. So this project is the pure embodiment of our can-do mindset. And in giga speed, we're making Germany's economy future-proof with AI. This doesn't just apply to manufacturing industry, but also as a service provider for the public sector.

We are continually challenging ourselves internally, too. In the area of customer service, for example, our FragMagenta chatbot, supported by AI, now has a first resolution rate of 55%. Now this helps us save money, and it helps us improve the customer experience. And recently, I dealt with the company that builds the agents that support the chatbots, and there's clearly more to come. This will become even more exciting in the future.

For our business outside the U.S., we expect cost savings of around EUR 800 million by 2027, and we are convinced that we can achieve even more. That is also our can-do spirit with data, with technology and with the necessary care and responsibility.

A further key element of our strategy is sustainability. Here, we've also made good progress. Despite rising data volumes, we've been able to reduce our energy consumption Europe-wide. And we've won multiple awards for this. I think this is an excellent result. A lot is going on in the engine room kind of behind the scenes that not too many people are aware of when it comes to our server architecture and other aspects.

Ladies and gentlemen, I will end with a look at our revised guidance. For the third time this year, we are raising our guidance for EBITDA AL and the free cash flow AL of the group. Now to around EUR 45.3 billion, around EUR 20.1 billion as far as the cash flow is concerned. Adjusted earnings per share are expected to increase to around EUR 2. A major driver of this is our acquisition of UScellular. For our business outside of the U.S., our guidance remains unchanged at EUR 3.6 billion.

And so we are sending a clear message, we deliver on our promises. We invest in the future in fiber and AI, in our people, and we are not waiting for others to act. We act. The best networks that connect people today and tomorrow coming from German telecom. Future technology that strengthens our economy. We want to be as dependable as possible. We will stay courageous. We will keep moving. We won't stop.

And with that, I will now hand over to you, Christian. We won't stop.

Thanks, Tim, and good morning from my part. I will keep my usual structure for Q3. First, I'll give an overview of the group's financial metrics, then I'll look at the operational development of the segments, and then I'll close with a comment on the development of free cash flow, adjusted net profit and net debt.

The group's financials, when you look at the overall development in Q3 was very positive. Reported net revenue rose by 1.5% to EUR 28.9 billion. That's a growth of EUR 434 million. And this includes negative exchange rate effects almost entirely from the U.S. dollar, which was down EUR 0.07 over the period. I'll talk about the exchange rate effect on the other metrics as I come to them.

Reported service revenue in the group increased by 2.2% to EUR 24.7 billion. This increase of EUR 543 million was reduced by exchange rate effects here as well, totaling EUR 935 million. The group's reported adjusted EBITDA AL rose in the third quarter by 0.2% to EUR 11.1 billion. That's up EUR 18 million, including the reducing effects from changes in exchange rates of EUR 431 million.

This brings me to the development in the operating segments. As usual, I'll start with the U.S. They reported on their figures on October 23 as required. T-Mobile US had record customer growth in Q3. This was driven by the combination of the best network, the best value for money and the best customer experience.

Total postpaid net additions, as Tim mentioned, amounted to 2.3 million in the first -- in these 3 months, marking that's 700,000 more year-on-year. And also with this particularly valuable postpaid phone net adds, that was -- stood at 1.01 million. That was around 142,000 more than in the same period of the prior year. That was also well over the average analyst expectations.

The growth in customer -- and we're seeing, though, a slight increase in the churn rate to 0.89%, up from 0.86% in the same period of 2024, but we continue to lead the industry with the lowest churn rate. And also in Q3, we saw a combination of high-speed Internet and fiber optics rising to -- rising by 160,000. So for 14 quarters in a row, we've grown by 400,000 customers, and that is absolute record. Our customers stand at almost 9 million customers. So our long-term goal with fixed assets or broadband of 12 million customers by 2028 and fiber optics up 20 million by 2028 is -- we're online for that.

Reported service revenues in U.S. dollar under U.S. GAAP increased by 9.1%, that's service revenue and to $18.2 billion. That's an increase of $1.52 billion. Looking at postpaid service revenue, it grew by 11.8% year-on-year.

Core adjusted EBITDA, under U.S. GAAP, and this was due to several factors, increased by 5.6% in the third quarter. That's an increase of $460 million. That was -- here, you can see the metrics on the chart here. Where does this -- how do you explain this? It's once again the same drivers as usual, significantly higher revenue per account and increased profitability. So the revenue we make from customers on all customers increased by 3% year-on-year to USD 149.44 and revenue per postpaid phone customers increased by 2% to $50.71. So you see a significant difference between prices you can achieve in the U.S. compared to in Europe.

And this brings me to the business in Germany. I'd like to start with the broadband market. There's not a whole lot of new things I can tell you here. Once again, the market growth is very slow, sluggish. We see strong competition and increasing customer growth among alternative network operators.

The number of broadband lines in our business declined by 25,000 year-on-year. In previous year, in fact, we grew by 38,000. So we don't expect any change in this trend in the near future. We are trying to counter this by increasing our monthly revenue per broadband line, and we've been successful so far, growing 3.6% year-on-year. We have increased prices here to compensate for the decline in number of customers, but we couldn't do that completely.

And all in all, we see that we have 5% more customers with connections, high-speed connections. That's a penetration of 54% or 8.1 million customers.

FTTH is a great development. We had a record quarter here, increasing by 155,000 customers in the third quarter. That's an increase of 18%. The penetration that Tim just mentioned has risen from 14.6% to 16.1%. We're still not satisfied with that. The FTTH line increased by 41% year-on-year to 1.9 million. So the investment in fiber optics is paying off. It's fast enough. We wish it could go faster, but the trend is in the right direction.

In the TV business, we won 27,000 net adds. That's significantly lower than the previous year. But in the previous year, we lost the Nebenkostenprivileg, that's a privilege for property owners to pass on cable TV and Internet service fees to tenants. And also the UEFA European Championship was on Magenta TV last year.

In the mobile business, we had net adds at 314,000 in the third quarter, down from 327,000 net adds in the same quarter of the prior year. This is comparable to our competition, which reported minus 750,000. So the mobile telecommunications market, we're well positioned there and especially thanks to our next Magenta charge rates.

The churn rate is constant and low, 0.8% in the third quarter. That's even a slight improvement year-on-year where we were at 0.9% with the churn rate. Service revenues on an organic basis in Germany grew by 0.4%. Mobile service revenues increased by 1.8% in organic terms. So we are on line with our guidance that we communicated at the Capital Market.

This brings me to the fixed line network. In organic terms, the service revenues fell by 0.3%. There are 3 main drivers here. First, we had very strong B2B growth in the third quarter of 2024. And in this year, it was just the opposite. We have a relative weak B2B result in the third quarter, mainly due to difficult economic circumstances, which you can read about everywhere, a sharp increase in insolvencies this year and once again, a continued decline in IT revenues in the Germany segment. And this has led to a weak B2B business for us. And this also is accompanied by the other 2 trends I cited, weaker broadband business and weaker wholesale business. And in sum, total broadband increased by 2.1% year-on-year. And this -- our guidance is between 3% and 4%.

Wholesale access revenues are pretty much flat in the third quarter after an increase of 3.6% last year. But here, once again, we have a stable wholesale revenue that we have forecasted for the -- and that's what we said last year at the Capital Market Day is and forecast that.

Going to the total segment, total reported revenue declined by 1.8% to EUR 6.3 billion. There were 2 main effects here. Last year, we had the UEFA European Championship and also continued terminal device business in Q3 this year.

Reported adjusted EBITDA AL grew in the third quarter. And here, for Germany, it wasn't unexpected, but it's slightly disappointing 0.1% to EUR 2.7 billion. That's a growth of 0.1% in organic terms. This is for the most part due to what we've already talked about, the effects for the last quarters. We have the wage increase from October '24 and the monthly wage increase that we've had for employee salaries this year as well has gone into effect, and that has had a downward effect on EBITDA. In Q4, we expect EBIT to rise above -- significantly above 4% again.

This brings me to Europe. Europe is very solid. It's growing, and it's growing in a very robust way continuously. Mobile contract net adds stood at 129,000. And this is adjusted to take into account Romania and the divestiture there where 60,000 active customers were subtracted from this. Broadband net adds stood at 57,000 and FMC net adds remained stable against the prior year at 143,000, while TV net adds stood at 38,000.

Total reported revenue was up 2.2%, organically 3.3% year-on-year. And when we break this down to fixed line and mobile, we see that mobile and fixed line service revenue was significantly above the 3% to almost 4%, and that explains the service revenue increase in sum totaled 3.3% year-on-year.

Reported adjusted EBITDA AL in the third quarter rose by 4.6% to EUR 1.2 billion. Organic growth was at the same level. So we don't take into account exchange rate effects there. So we're on the way to meet our forecast at the Capital Market Days of growth between 4% and 5%.

This brings me to T-Systems. Its order entry in Q3 was up 3.7%. T-Systems reported revenue rose by 2.3%. The drivers remain the same. The digital business, the road charging business and in contrast to the German segment at T-Systems, the public sector is becoming ever more important and supporting our business there.

Reported adjusted EBITDA AL in the segment was up 23% to EUR 127 million, but this is mostly a project business that isn't as constant as the infrastructure business. So in sum total, I'm very satisfied with the development of T-Systems.

This brings me to free cash flow and the key financial metrics and liabilities. Free cash flow dropped 9.2% year-on-year to EUR 5.6 billion. There are 2 main effects here. The first was we had a lower operative cash flow, and this was due to the weaker dollar that accounted for EUR 500 million, plus we had an increase in CapEx, especially in the U.S., where cash CapEx rose EUR 550 million. But because of free cash flow, that lessen this effect after 9 months, the development was a growth of 6.8% in free cash flow. So that helped that situation.

Adjusted net profit was up 14.3% in the third quarter. That's an increase of EUR 2.7 billion -- it rose to EUR 2.7 billion. And this is supported by a positive -- several positive effects and the equity result was supported by GD Towers. These were the main drivers that led the net profit to rise by almost EUR 295 million.

Factors reducing adjusted net profit came -- include M&A activities to a tune of EUR 7.9 million, UScellular and Metronet and also the increase in the share buyback, EUR 1.2 billion and on the DTAG share buyback also and the dividend we paid that as well as acquisition of spectrum for EUR 0.4 billion in Slovakia as well as payment for extension of frequencies in Germany, that was EUR 200 million and also -- but this was counterbalanced by free cash flow and leasing.

The ratio of net debt, excluding leasing fell to 2.23 at the end of the third quarter. I should mention that -- and this is very encouraging, we received a rating upgrade from Moody's from Baa1 to A3. We're very pleased about this, and we hope we can continue to receive rating upgrades.

And with that, I'll give the floor to Tim.

Thanks, Christian. And let's come to our Q&A. You know the format, if you want to ask a question, you would help us a lot if you use the hands up function of Teams app, then we know that you want to ask a question and we can invite you to the virtual waiting room. So just use the hands up function and then we'll see that you want to ask a question and can call on you. But you also have the option of using the chat function if you watch us via the stream and can hand in a question in this way.

Now based on my list, [indiscernible] is the first, but I can't see him on my monitor. Mr. [indiscernible]. I can see [ Mr. David ]. So let's start with him. Mr. David, can you hear us?

Yes, I hear you well. I hope you can hear me as well. Thank you very much for your interesting talk. I have a question on the FTTH business in Germany, which seems to be encouraging. I think you mentioned 16.1% as our take-up rate. And you also mentioned the 14.6%. Was that the number of the past year or 3 months ago? And how do you assess the 16%? And what are you doing to boost that rate?

Maybe do you do you want to lower prices for fiber connections maybe? And the question about the way forward. What is your target? When are you going to reach 20%, 25%? And what do people actually want? You said that broadband width is relatively low. What is your share of the new FTTH customers that go for 1,000 megabit?

And another question. How is the sale going of your own AI phone? Can you give us some numbers? Are you happy with that? How is the phone selling? Is it popular in the market?

Well, let me start with the 14.6% that you mentioned. That's the penetration in September of the previous year, so '24. The 16.1% is the penetration end of September '25. So this is the year-on-year comparison after 12 months.

What are we going to do? I told you that this is an encouraging development, but it's not enough. Of course, we want to accelerate penetration. That's why we're going to focus on fiber build-out, a special focus on single-family units because we know that the take-up rate there is much higher than in MDUs. This is a strategic shift.

And second topic in the MDUs, we will do more kind of pre-connections irrespective of contracts so that people don't have to ask another time for a connection. And hopefully, this will drive up penetration. But of course, generally, I would wish a faster ramp-up of the fiber infrastructure because we believe that these 2 essential issues have led to higher investment and need to be accelerated.

How many new customers do we want to gain? We said at the Capital Markets Day, we want to win 1 million new customers in '27. This is our target that we want to achieve. And of course, it needs to be seen against the background of the infrastructure that we have built. But what's important is, to me, is that the acceleration of new customers, new fiber customers will go up quarter-by-quarter. And you've seen that 155,000 customers this quarter has already been a record. So you can see our investment in fiber is right, is paying off, but monetization is still too slow.

I have nothing to add to that. Of course, we would hope that government helps us implement this in MDUs. Whenever we supply apartments, of course, we shouldn't pay these extra charges. And so we explicitly welcome the initiative of the Federal Ministry of Digitization so that everybody can use the infrastructure, which allows for more competition. But what should not happen is that we need to pay money for actually funding this infrastructure. So everybody should really -- should help us with this argument really because if that would actually happen, it would be another obstacle for us to clear.

Now moving on to your question about the AI-phone. We're very happy with the uptake. The new AI-phone is very popular with the middle segment really of customers, not just in Germany, but in the typical Android countries. You know that Germany is an iPhone market, high Apple market share, whereas the other countries in the European segment are very much Android driven. The phone is on an Android basis. And so in the medium segment, it's very popular.

What's also interesting is that customers are interested in Perplexity. For example, we seem to be the largest distributors of Perplexity outside the U.S., but also Picsart and ElevenLabs. These functionalities are very much in demand. So you can see there is a market where you can see people are getting closer to AI. And what's also encouraging is the development in the portfolio of the tablet. We also have a tablet in the market, an AI-phone tablet that supports AI functions and that is significantly more affordable than the product of our competitors.

We generally do not report the actual sales figures of terminal equipment. So bear with us for not going into this kind of micro management. But now sales pitch, we have the Black Friday coming up, and there will be an interesting offer connected to the AI-phone.

Now let's move on, Ms. [indiscernible] and then Mr. [indiscernible], the next one on the list. Ms. [indiscernible], your question please.

First question you said that you're using AI in different parts of your business. Can you give us some figures on the profit you're making with AI, maybe in T-Systems, for example? And then the NVIDIA partnerships that you mentioned, to what extent are you shifting your business focus to AI?

And just a brief question. There was a headcount reduction in Germany recently. To what extent is this attributable to AI?

Could you repeat your last question because we didn't hear it well. Headcount, you talked about headcount.

Yes, I think 4.4% headcount reduction in Germany, if I'm correctly informed, to what extent is this related to AI?

Let me start with your first question, AI, our use of AI. I don't think I need to emphasize how important AI is for telecommunications and for Deutsche Telekom and will be in the next few years. There is no area. There's no process that is not changed by AI. But this is not just about efficiency targets, but this is also about providing better service for our customers. And I've just come from the Cybersecurity Summit in Israel, also in order to protect the company better. So we need to strengthen our resilience, our infrastructure.

I don't need to tell you that this is about seconds, and you can't really do that with humans. You need the corresponding systems to do that. We are using AI in terms of network monitoring. We're using it for our fiber build-out. We are using it or have used it for software development. We use it in customer service. I mentioned FragMagenta in the chatbot, which more and more the scheduling and answers questions automatically.

We also have an employee tool, which is very popular, more than 150,000 queries. And [ Agenta.ai ] is our consumer offering, which we have launched in almost all our markets. So the savings effects and the efficiency gains, for example, if in mobile communications, we have 95% better troubleshooting, we have a 40% savings also in IT. 2.5 million calls were deflected, thanks to AI. Also capacity boost when it comes to developing products and marketing by 5%. I could keep talking about this for hours.

And so you can see that our EBITDA has improved correspondingly against the trend in the market, against what our competitors are showing. It's not just due to AI, but it's also due to AI. So I'm not calling this an AI efficiency gain. Of course, we look at the total picture, but we are getting more efficient. What we want to achieve is savings of more than EUR 1 billion. This helps us with the EBITDA and the profit. And I think we're on the right track. But I think we can do even more, although I've seen all the developments when it comes to AI agents.

I think the day before yesterday, we presented the guardian angel that we presented at the Mobile World Congress for the first time, and we've launched this, so to monitor the network using AI. Yes, you've also seen it in the CapEx reduction. We now have a CapEx reduction. Our cost per household for fiber connections, we've clearly lowered this.

And why was this possible through automation and AI that we're now using for planning as well for documentation and other functions. And this is just the start. Of course, it will also lead to a planned headcount reduction that we've implemented in Germany already to some extent. The employment figures are going down. Of course, this also is due to demographic effects. You will see some efficiency gains also in headcount, but this is not our major target to use AI to cut jobs. In some areas, we will also have to employ more people, for example, in IT and in sales support, just think of people that we've hired to accelerate our fiber build-out, more than 100,000 people in homes connected or the AI experts that we need in order to use these tools. So all of this is also an opportunity for new employment in the business.

And maybe back to the guardian angel, you could say that once you have such a system to monitor the network, you don't need any new employees then. But it will help us also with shortages in the labor market of skilled labor.

Yes, when you look at AI, of course, we are going to use agents in the future, but we need better protection for this and better cybersecurity because these agent models -- I mean, we will be attacked, of course. And this requires additional investment in security, definitely.

And let me move on to the question about T-Systems. Now when it comes to T-Systems, I think what was your question again? The second question? Headcount development, AI. Did I answer that question, Ms. [indiscernible]?

Yes, you did.

So I don't want to keep talking. I was going to mention the infrastructure that we need, but 10,000 GPUs and the buildup of the AI factory will lead to a situation where we'll have our own services and infrastructure, our AST, so all the data we need to make a large language model available to all the employees that they can use to query the entire knowledge of the company. The end result will be that the answer will come up in 18 seconds and will not take more than 1 minute or so. So this machine will be our own development, and this will help us with the GPUs and to have the necessary capacity utilization.

Then we'll continue with Mr. [indiscernible] and then Mr. [indiscernible]. Mr. [indiscernible], you go first.

I would like to come back to what you said about the AI factory. Could you tell us what importance will this have for your overall business overall? How much money are you investing in Munich and the gigafactory? You said it's like a speed boat on the weight of the gigafactory. We're talking about the group figures. Could you go into a little bit more detail and put it in the overall context? And do you think it would be a good idea not to pay out so much money in dividends and share buybacks when you have such an exciting new business area to invest in?

The second topic is the market in Germany, and we see some major changes here. We have a new CEO at Telefonica Germany. You know him from GD Towers. And what impetus do you expect this will provide the German market? And also, will you be successful in improving the broadband figures for the business by -- will you achieve this 2% to 3% in your guidance that you announced at the Capital Market Day? Or do you see a slump taking place here in the market?

Well, maybe just briefly to the dividend. I have to comment on that because the dividends that's 3.5%, and that's at the lower end of the scale by European comparison. And as a result of this, I think that's an adequate dividend for the shareholders, we have 1.3 million retail shareholders, so individuals. And that's -- so that's quite a bit. That's a large number. And I think we really have to stay in line with the market.

Also the share buyback at DTAG, we're doing this because we believe that our business outside the U.S. is undervalued. And that's why the return that we can achieve on this through this share buyback is about 8% return. And at the current share price that is, which we think we can achieve. So it's a very rational move and to invest in our own share without really having a negative impact on our investment budget.

So second topic, broadband right now, there's -- we don't see any need to change our guidance there. We have a guidance of 3% to 4% with broadband. We didn't achieve it this quarter, but we think the guidance is for '27, and we're sticking to that. So the build-out strategy will lead to greater customer numbers, and we think that will help us monetize the fiber-optic network better.

And with regard to Telefonica, I don't know what to say because maybe you can comment on that, Tim, because I want to see what the new Telefonica CEO does in Germany. And as for this announcement, we'll have to wait and see. We have a very strong competition -- competitive landscape in mobile and what's happening at Vodafone, but also aggressive offers from Telefonica and also in the fixed line, the prices have -- we've increased them by EUR 1 in the customer areas. So -- and we think that the market will calm down here. We hope that people will see that we're exchanging value for volume. That's okay with us. But Tim, maybe you want to comment on the Telefonica change, the CEO.

I think that Telefonica, we can expect rational behavior there. They're also investing in infrastructure. In the past few years, our industry hasn't been able to pass inflation -- the inflation rate on to customers in terms of prices. That's the only industry that hasn't been able to do that. All other industrial sectors have passed on their increased cost to their buyers, their consumers. We haven't been able to. That's why the investment capability of our entire sector is limited. And I expect some positive impetus also in terms of sales revenue per customer and prices in Germany, but that applies to all the players, including Vodafone, I can only speculate there. But I think you see the pressure that Telefonica has been under, but they're a very good partner of ours.

And just look at broadband development, they market our infrastructure, our fiber infrastructure and Mr. Murta, their CEO and I are discussing to what extent we can expand this marketing effort. So I think that a good partnership like we had with Mr. Haas will be continued with Telefonica.

I understand the financial economic difficulties they have after the one [indiscernible] customers went to Vodafone, but I can't really help them there. We'll continue to act rationally in the market and seek a partnership with Telefonica.

Yes, in AI, we have a total investment of EUR 1 billion in GPUs on the black fill architecture that about half of that is being invested by NVIDIA. Our investment share in the data center goes in the software, the connections and the security, also in the cloud infrastructure that we're providing for that. And we expect sales revenue in particular for T-Systems in that system and digital variable [indiscernible] will be improved the revenue intake. And we'll be pushing this under the rubric of sovereignty.

And I think we're providing an answer to the whole issue of sovereignty. Okay, there's a question of American chips. But the European and German infrastructure depends on that. As long as we don't have a factory, we have to rely on these other chips.

And also, the second question is, relates to the public hand and that stands towards the sovereign infrastructure. And when they say -- when the government says, we'll put our data in there, we're investing in Germany, and we have a German solution, then that will make a big difference. And I think that will create an impetus. And also, it will have a ripple effect on German medium-sized companies because what's at stake here is Mr. Jensen said, Industry 4.0 was a huge concept, but the step towards automation has been missing. Now we have the tools. Now we have the infrastructure. Now we can realize Industry 4.0.

And as I've said many times in Israel, we looked at all kinds of companies that showed how through digital twins and robotics and automation, agent models, and all these have to be trained first to work effectively, how they've achieved huge boost in productivity. And that will be our task, too, in distribution and in the market. In the next few months, together with SAP, we're going to be rolling that out in the market, and we're really optimistic that we have a solution for Germany.

And if we see that demand picks up and we're able to make our customers satisfied, then we'll continue to invest in this. And we're not limited by any expenditures in the capital market for -- you heard that with our dividend, you've heard about our debt ratio. We have a good investment rating as a group. We have a very strong free cash flow, which is, of course, boosted by the U.S. and we'll continue to work on the gigabyte factory full steam ahead.

Of course, we want to sell it, and it would help us to get the government behind us there. And this investment is in the double-digit billions, and we're happy with any help we can get, and we'll work with partners because we want to have a secure footing for this, but distribution and marketing will be mostly in the domain of Deutsche Telekom. That will be the next big step that we take. We're planning that internally right now. And as soon as we have something solid, we'll inform you about how we want to carry on with our investments.

I think in the next 2 or 3 months, we'll know a lot more and can come back to you on that. I hope Mr. [indiscernible], I was able to answer your question. And I think this is a huge opportunity for Germany. And next week with Macron and Merz at the Digitalization Summit, we'll -- I'll give a presentation on this. We shouldn't just complain about things. We should talk about what we are doing right now, especially here in Germany.

So let's briefly wrap this up with the next question. Mr. [indiscernible] is next on the list.

Mr. Hottges, I'm not going to ask a fiber question and comment on the take-up rate. But the BOS, are you going to talk them out of their own broadband investment? And could you comment on T Mission generally, what you want to achieve?

A great question, Mr. [indiscernible]. So I remember the criticism, only Vodafone is building the only real 5G network. And that was stand-alone 5G SA. Now today, Deutsche Telekom has the only countrywide 5G SA network that we can offer here. So the only countrywide 5G SA network. SA is an opportunity to offer slice. With SA, we can enable T Mission, because the security authorities, we can give them a chance to have an always available secure system channel with high 5G capability. And we can also save taxpayers money because the federal government doesn't have to build its own network. Other governments are doing that like the United States, it's police authorities like in New York and others or look at the U.K., something similar is happening on the BOS infrastructure.

Now the intention apart from the difficulties to build a network for mobile communications by the government or so is, I think, completely unthinkable. So the only alternative is to use BOS technology as quickly as possible. And with 5G SA, we have provided to government authorities, not just the speech access, but high bit rates and that they can use for videos and other content. Now this offering is really something that we've highlighted. It's in the shop window as it were.

I've talked to the federal chancellor. I've talked to representatives of the federal government. We've presented it to them. We've presented it to police authorities, but also hospitals and disaster relief agencies because in an emergency, and I'm not talking about a war, but other emergencies, we need a safe sharing of data and information. This product is finished and ready to be used. We can introduce it very quickly. It's based on a highly encrypted infrastructure in a cloud, which is under government supervision. So we guarantee network stability and resilience in this infrastructure.

And by now, with 5G, we have 99% coverage, so high security standard. And we don't need to build a new network. So T Mission can replace the BT BOS infrastructure, yes, faster, more cost efficiently, and it's available right now. So if you look at the high investment that we need in Germany now in infrastructure, this would be a very cost-efficient option for the federal government. And Deutsche Telekom is a big player here, of course, in the German market, and we are absolutely capable of doing this. And hopefully, we can convince the government.

And you said you're not talking about fiber, Mr. [ Buchner ]. But let's mention fiber anyway, the complex situation. And you said you have a customer case where it took a long time. I mean, we actually tracked that. The customer now has a fiber connection. Why did it take so long? Because it was a multi-dwelling unit and the in-house connection was difficult. We went through the chimney in that house. But the permit that we needed from the chimney sweep took long, and that's why it was delayed so much. This is the reality of fiber connections in Germany.

In other countries, you just go through a wall and then you have the connection. It's not that easy in Germany. But we're happy that we could offer that to the customer in Hamburg. And Mr. [indiscernible] is next on the speaker's list.

So part of my question has already been answered. At the Capital Market Day, it was said there are 3 network operators in the U.S., in China and 38 in Europe. Will there be any changes in Germany? And will we be down to 2 networks or 2.5 networks in Germany in the future? And Mr. [indiscernible] is happy about the AI factory in Munich, but you're relying very much on Microsoft Teams right now. Shouldn't you work on a German solution also?

Thank you very much. I can't speculate on market consolidation. You know that we drove the consolidation here in Germany. If we try to take over anybody in Germany, I think the antitrust authorities would look at this very critically. So European market, intra-market consolidation is much more strongly felt with the Orange and Telefonica and other competitors.

I understand [ Mr. Murta ] target. If you want more investment capability like in the U.S. and our markets, our entire success story is based on this really. Then he will have to try to realize economies of scale and other cash advantages. His strategy and what he wants for the U.K. or other markets, I think, is absolutely plausible and it's right. But Deutsche Telekom currently is not in a situation where we need to consolidate or can even consolidate because we've either sold our stake in markets or have done consolidation within markets, and we can't really move any further within Germany. So the cards are really on his table.

And I think if you look at the German market, it would be good for the German market if we had some more consolidation. And Mr. [indiscernible], I'm really very mad at -- and sometimes I wish I could manipulate you why don't you write about this in the press because we had a very expensive action on the 3.5 giga spectrum, and we basically generated some competition. And we took 100 megahertz out of it and these 100 megahertz are not used at all. I mean we're all citizens of this country.

How can it possibly happen that the 100 megahertz spectrum that's used for campus networks or the industry are not used at all. And the second spectrum was sold with high asymmetrical conditions to a competitor. And this spectrum is not used either. So 200 megahertz of the spectrum are only used by 2 competitors. So this is an artificial narrowing of the supply side. And so it's not consistently implemented in Germany, and then we are mad at each other. So I would wish a different implementation of the general welfare really. I think this is the perfect queue for our next speaker who has written an article on this recently, Ms. [indiscernible], your question.

I'm more interested in the use of your network by the police and the federal armed services if they were to invest in this, but this very much depends on Huawei. And now the government seems to be moving now because they've passed legislation now. So the Federal Ministry of Interior will have the authority on these decisions and because these networks are considered to be critical infrastructure. So my question, are you preparing for this that Huawei will be excluded from the German market here from this network?

And how do you like the Nokia solution that you -- that's already used in parts of the network? And what do you expect the costs to be like? And how can you cushion the effect from the cost?

Well, first of all, we don't want to speculate on this right now because these things come and go. And of course, we have to do long-term investments here and there at the time in order to be legally secure. We talked to the previous federal government and signed a legally binding agreement. Now this agreement cost us double-digit millions because we are now about to replace the original software with new software. So this control software, we are making progress, and we're investing a lot of money in order to get this right.

At the same time, we have 3,000 O-RAN locations that's being implemented right now. And what we see from Nokia right now is very promising. So we're very happy what Nokia is doing right now. And we're looking at the testing now. We see the first usages now where customers can already use this. So this is also on track, and this is giving us additional autonomy.

Now third aspect, we're not seeing any restrictions or security risks by having an antenna somewhere out there in the infrastructure. That doesn't pose any kind of security risk. Now all these optical networks, the connection networks and the core network architecture, where a signal turns into information, all of this is free from the Chinese already.

So at this point, I don't see any security risk also when it comes using federal networks or police networks. And here, there are also other countries in Europe that have already the BOS architecture on the basis of Chinese antenna. Now this is a matter issue really, but there are no details or any kind of technical arguments that would confirm this. Of course, we always have a plan B.

So if there is the legislation to that effect, the question is, do we want this billions of investment in just a conversion of the network by not having the most modern technology, but only having to do the conversion, do we want the infrastructure and service providers to deal with the removal of such antenna? Well, of course, we will always stick to the decisions that are taken by the government in Berlin. But I think the path that we've chosen right now and agreed with the federal government right now is the better option.

Yes. That brings us to the end of the Q&A. I would like to bid farewell to everyone. We've had several press conferences today from different companies on their metrics on the third quarter. And thank you for all -- for our colleague who is going into retirement from the press and how you've critically followed us for the years and all the best in your retirement years. And thank you for dialing in today and asking your questions by Mr. [indiscernible], all the best in retirement. Bye-bye from Bonn.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

Good afternoon, and welcome to Deutsche Telekom's Second Quarter 2025 Conference Call.

As you can see, with me today is our CEO, Tim Hottges and our CFO, Christian Illek. As usual, Tim will first go through his midyear highlights, highlights followed by Christian, who will talk about the quarterly performance and our group financials. After this, we have time for Q&A.

Before I hand over to Tim, please pay attention to our usual disclaimer, which you will find in the presentation. And please also note that this conference will be recorded and uploaded to the Internet.

And now it's my pleasure to hand over to Tim.

Yes. Thank you, Hannes, and welcome to our first half 2025 results call. We continue to deliver consistent, reliable growth, amidst the competition and the global tariff turmoil, we remain on course, and we even slightly raised our guidance for 2025. As usual, I will start with the year-to-date view for the group before Christian will dive into the details of our second quarter results.

Our growth momentum has remained strong and steady. Our flywheel strategy keeps working. In the first 6 months of 2025, we delivered 3.7% organic service revenue growth, 5.2% organic EBITDA growth, 17.8% growth in free cash flow and 6.4% growth in adjusted earnings per share. With these results, we are on track for the midterm targets of the last Capital Markets Day. And while there are some incremental headwinds, there are many incremental positives, including upside from M&A, T-Mobile spectrum disposals and from fiscal relief on both sides of the Atlantic.

I'm especially happy with our progress on the M&A front. In Europe, we got clearance for the sale of our Romanian Mobile business. This win-win transaction brings much needed in-market consolidation while improving the growth profile for our European segment.

In the U.S. we closed the MetroNet and the UScellular transactions . This comes after the Lumos fiber joint venture and the 2 out-of-home advertising companies, Vista and Bliss. We are now looking forward to the incremental growth that these transactions will bring. T-Mobile also sold part of their 3.45 gigahertz spectrum for USD 2 billion and agreed to sell our 800 megahertz spectrum in exchange for cash and some valuable 600 megahertz spectrum. As you can see on the next page, all our segments are contributing to our EBITDA growth. DT ex-U.S. grew by 3.6% year-over-year.

Moving to our networks, where we continue to extend our leadership. In the last 12 months, we passed 3.4 million additional European homes with FTTH. We now reach nearly 22 million homes, of which 11 million here in Germany. In the U.S., we launched T-Fiber enabled by our 2 new fiber joint ventures. Our mobile network remains leading across the footprint. Our German network has ranked top European large country network and Ookla confirmed T-Mobile's network is the best network in the U.S. Two weeks ago, T-Mobile also launched T-Satellite after a successful beta test.

At last year's Capital Markets Day, we talked a lot about how AI is accelerating our digital transformation. And last quarter, I showed you various ongoing initiatives. On Page 7, you can see the additional progress we have made as this remains a top priority.

Let me pick out a few highlights. Our AI-based employee knowledge tool askT is already used by 30% of all German employees. The tool has now been rolled out in Greece and in other markets. In the network, our AI-based remote monitoring agent is now moving towards implementation. AI created lines of code increased to 10% of the total. And FragMagenta, our chat and voice bot is now reflecting 1.6 million calls already in the first half year. To make this tangible, 1.6 million deflected calls corresponds to about 133,000 call agent hours.

At the Capital Markets Day for DT ex-U.S. we estimated the financial benefit at around EUR 800 million in cost savings by 2027, and we see ourselves well on track for that. Finally, on the product side, the active base in Magenta Moments has grown to 4.8 million. So our rewards program is highly accepted. We are launching an iPhone across our European footprint. We have partnered with NVIDIA to build Europe's first industrial AI factory, by the way, starting in the first quarter next year already.

Over in the U.S., T-Mobile is making very impressive progress with their ambitious digitization plans too. As T-Mobile highlighted during their results call, the share of upgrades done digitally has increased about 2/3, from about half last quarter and virtually 01 year ago. T-Mobile's market-leading T-Life app has more than 75 million installed already.

Our customer growth continues on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.S., we had the strongest second quarter and first half for postpaid customers net additions ever. And we substantially raised the full year guidance. The second quarter was also a record quarter for postpaid phone customer net additions. And outside of the U.S., our intake remained strong but we had fewer mobile net adds in Germany caused by a low-margin enterprise contract loss. Growth in the German consumer market remained strong also this quarter. Mobile in Germany is good.

Moving on to fixed KPI. Our DT ex-U.S. broadband customer growth was positive but slowed due to Germany. Our TV customer growth was also slower, mainly due to the rollover of the tailwind from the Euro '24 championships in the prior year. This is not a headache.

Let me put these trends in perspective. As you all know, the German broadband market has slowed and competitive intensity has stepped up in recent quarters. But as before, we remain committed to our strategy, to our successful flywheel of differentiation. We have built the best networks and create a superior customer experience.

In Germany, our mobile network is leading, and we are leading the fiber build-out as well. We are not happy with our German broadband customer losses this quarter but ARPA growth developed positively. And we do understand fiber monetization is a long game, and we will continue to play the long game here.

As you know, we deployed 2.5 million additional fiber homes passed per annum, and we are committed increased to do the same number again this year. We are connecting increasing numbers of customers with fiber. As stated at the Capital Markets Day, we intend to double our annual run rate to 1 million by 2027. In this context, we welcome the recent proposal of the new digital ministry to accelerate fiber deployments to remove bureaucratic hurdles and to facilitate in-house connections in the multi-dwelling units.

To stabilize our performance nearer term, we are stepping up as well. What are we doing? Regional and commercial segmentation. We are doing an MDU push. We are doing target retention activity, especially in overbuilt areas. And last week, we also announced a hybrid broadband access product that can deliver up to 500 bits per second -- megabits per second.

Moving on to ESG. We continue our efforts to contain our energy consumption and emissions in line with our stated targets. Despite rising data consumption, we were able to slightly lower our DT ex-U.S. energy consumption in the first half. In Germany, we conducted various campaigns, including campaigns against hate speech and loneliness and to empower Gen Z in data protection.

Let's now move on to our guidance update on the next page. Our guidance remains based on the last year's average forecast for the foreign exchange of 1.08. And as always is the sum of the guidance for DT ex-U.S. and for T-Mobile U.S. adjusted by the U.S. GAAP IFRS bridge. T-Mobile raised its guidance for customers and financial growth on 23rd of July. T-Mobile raised both its 2025 EBITDA and free cash flow guidance by EUR 50 million at the midpoint. The new guidance includes the contribution from the recently completed acquisition of Metronet but not that of UScellular yet.

We are passing this on in the group guidance today. As the result, we now project group EBITDA of more than EUR 45 billion and free cash flow of more than EUR 20 billion for the whole of 2025. All other guidance remains unchanged. Our DT ex-U.S. EBITDA guidance remains EUR 15 billion. But this is now after an unexpected around EUR 50 million one-off headwind in Germany that Christian will talk about in a moment.

So let me now hand it over to Christian for a deeper dive into the second quarter.

Yes. Thanks, Tim, and welcome from my side. As you know, let me start with the quarterly segment review and then discuss selected group financials. And as usual, let's start with the U.S., we have reported excellent results on the 23rd of July. If we're taking a look at the T-Mobile U.S. performance in local currency according to U.S. GAAP, you see that the service revenue has increased and accelerated to 6.1% growth, and that was largely driven by a very strong performance in postpaid service revenues, which accelerated to 9.1% on a year-on-year basis. It was driven, obviously, by the strong customer intake but also due to increases both in ARPA and ARPU. The core EBITDA has grown by 6.4%, and as Tim already mentioned, that was one of the drivers why T-Mobile U.S. has raised its guidance both on EBITDA as well as some free cash flow.

Moving to Page 13. You see the customer intake of T-Mobile in the second quarter. You see it was, as Tim already said, record breaking. The postpaid net additions were about 1.7 billion. This is an increase of 400,000 relative to last year and the best ever quarter in Q2, they faced in their history. Same was true for the postpaid phone net adds. They increased by 53,000 relative to the last year's performance to 830,000, again, the best ever quarter for T-Mobile U.S.

T-Mobile has added 318,000 new postpaid accounts. This is an increase of 6%, and they've added 454 new broadband -- 5G broadband customers, an increase of 12%. So the churn was up by 10 basis points, as you can see, relative to the previous year and that reflects the rate plan optimizations but that was clearly overcompensated by the strong customer intake on gross additions.

Following these results, T-Mobile raised this customer growth guidance. So for 2025, they expect now in between 6.1 million to 6.4 million net additions relative to the old guidance of 5.5 million to 6 million. The guidance for phone net adds were close to 3 million to 3.1 million, and they also predict a customer intake of roughly 100,000 on fiber net adds.

Let's move over to Germany. As you can see, the headline revenues declined in the quarter, and there are 2 major drivers. The first one, the biggest one is one-off revenue, which we got from the sublicensing of the European Champions of TV rights. And the second one is we have to -- according to a court ruling, we have to change the way how we account for handset revenues if we early prolong contracts, and that is a headwind, which impacts both revenues and EBITDA. The total amount of the impact is around EUR 50 million in the first half. It's noncash, and it will reverse over the course of the next 24 months. The total service revenue grew at 1.1% and EBITDA grew at 2%.

So let me dwell a little bit on the EBITDA performance. So on the positive side, in the second quarter, you see that we obviously -- last year, we had to face the one-off wage payment on what we call energy support. This obviously is a tailwind in the second quarter of '25. But on the flip side, we have to absorb the 6% wage increase, which we agreed upon last year, starting in October '24. And also, we have to absorb the negative impact on the IFRS customer accounting.

So, if I'm taking a look to the outlook of the EBITDA due to various phasing effects, but especially due to the wage increase, which we have to embrace in the third quarter, which we didn't have in the third quarter of last year and an additional increase of EUR 190 salary increase starting from August 1 onwards, we expect that the EBITDA performance in the third quarter is below the current run rate. On the flip side, we expect that the fourth quarter is actually above the current run rate. The reason is the wage impact will largely roll over the 6% wage increase.

On top, and we said, I think, in the first quarter as well, we're facing some meaningful energy cost headwinds due to some increased grid fees but also hedging effects from the year 2022. This will also roll over in next year's financials.

Moving over to service revenue. The total service revenue is -- has slowed down to 1.1%, as I said earlier on. The slowdown in mobile service revenues comes after a stronger-than-usual quarter in Q1, and we mentioned this in the last call, it should be not surprising to anybody. This quarter's growth is very similar to the second half of '24 but we remain absolutely comfortable with our guidance of 2% to 2.5% in the time frame of '23 to '27.

The growth in fixed service revenues improved slightly sequentially but is still subdued. Fixed service revenue trends remain impacted by lower IT service revenues, which decreased on a year-on-year basis and lagging government demand for especially telco services. In addition, while positive, a broadband and wholesale revenues were sequentially weaker.

Looking at the outlook for the remainder of the year, what you see on the chart is we had a very strong Q3 in last year's performance. And that was followed by a weak performance in the fourth quarter, and that was the first quarter where we faced this IT revenue drag, which we are having over the course of the full year. So if you compare those comp effects we expect that the fixed service revenues will be from a growth perspective, being sequentially lower in Q3 but again, higher in Q4, same way as we described the EBITDA.

As you can see on Page 16, while overall service revenues remain subdued, broadband and wholesale access revenues remain in solid growth territory. We said that the main driver for the broadband growth, revenue growth will be value growth. And you see that the ARPU of our retail customer base has increased on a year-on-year basis by 3.5% and that's mainly driven by upselling into higher speeds. And that continues to be the key driver of broadband revenue growth.

Moving over to the fixed line KPIs. So our monetization remains positively, our customer growth remained in negative territory. In the second quarter, we didn't perceive any changes in the competitive environment compared to the first quarter. We're still facing very slow overall market growth. We have ongoing pressure from the alt nets or the overbuilders, and we saw a very promotional cable competitor in the second quarter. We, on our side, had to reduce the promotional value beginning of the second quarter by cutting the discount period from 6 to 3 months, and we believe that explains the sequential slowdown in the broadband net adds.

As you heard from Tim earlier, we're playing the long game here, and we remain focused on upselling and on fiber. So we're on track with our homes passed strategy to add another 2.5 million of fiber homes passed onto the network this year. And we are trying -- we are increasingly connecting more and more fiber customers.

Last quarter was 137,000, which is an increase of more than 20%. As you recall, we intend to double our run rate to 1 million by the end of '27. Finally, on TV, what you see is still growth, but relatively smaller given some tailwinds last year. We added 23,000 IPTV customers and 40,000 over-the-top customers.

Moving over to Mobile. And we're seeing some elevated competition for quite some time but still our commercials remains strong. Our B2C customer intake has actually increased Q-over-Q between Q1 and Q2 but we lost a sizable and Tim mentioned it low-margin B2B contract, and that basically explains the sequential slowdown in the second quarter. You see that the data growth is still strong, and we are seeing an unchanged churn rate of 0.8% per month.

Moving over to the European segment. The European segment delivered an excellent result in the second quarter, they're contributing now 30 quarters of consistent organic EBITDA growth. The organic revenue growth was 2.1%. The service revenue growth was actually higher at 2.6%, very comparable between mobile and broadband. The EBITDA growth was strong at 6.3%, and the slowdown is actually due to the rollover of inflation-driven price increases in some markets.

Moving over to the customer growth in the European operations. You see that strong performance, the mobile customer base has grown by 209,000 in the second quarter. We see a very strong performance across the footprint, but especially in Poland and in Croatia. We also saw strong commercials in all the other categories, being at Broadband, FMC or TV. We made also further progress on the digitalization in the European segment. So the app penetration is now at 72% and Magenta Moments members have reached 4.7 million, so we're well on to meet our '27 targets of the CMD.

Moving over to T-Systems. T-Systems continues to be on a positive tack. You see that the order book has increased almost 12% on the last 12 months. This is driven by the same drivers as you have seen in the last quarters. It's cloud, it's digital solutions and road charging. We're also seeing an increasing interest on digitalization projects and digital sovereignty offerings in the German market. And that led -- that leads to a strong organic revenue growth of almost 4% in the second quarter, and the organic EBITDA growth is slightly above 8% in the second quarter. So T-Systems absolutely on track with its full year guidance, but also with the CMD targets. So that's basically it for the operational review.

Now let's have a look at some selected financials. So overall, what you see is, obviously, we had a negative impact relative to the last year when it comes to the dollar, and we've seen some phasing impacts, which affect both free cash flow and earnings.

So if you take a look at the Page 23, you see that the free cash flow bridge -- the free cash flow has decreased by 6.7%. This is largely explainable to -- due to 2 factors. One is the weaker dollar and the other one is a negative working capital effects. We also see an increase relative to Q2 '24 on CapEx. This is not surprising because it was especially low in the first quarter. And if you combine the 2 quarters, we're still on 18% growth on free cash flow.

Taking a look at the net profit. It was impacted by a weaker dollar. That accounts for roughly EUR 400 million coming from the U.S. And we had some positive impacts in the last year's second quarter results, there was a release of an accrual of the health insurance for public servants and also, we had a derivative impact, which both accounted for EUR 0.04. So if you take a look at the reported figures on EPS, they grew at 6.4% on a year-on-year basis. If you basically exclude what we call the nonrecurring effects, the growth is close to 10%, it's at 9.8%.

So finally, net debt. You see that the net debt has decreased relative to the previous quarter in Q1 by EUR 2.7 billion. This is basically driven by 3 factors. One is the EUR 4.9 million effect on free cash flow generation. Then we have ForEx and derivative effect, which account for more than EUR 5 billion. And we have a net -- reduction on net debt because of the 3.45 sale of USD 2 billion, which was offset partially by 600 megahertz and the one-off extension for the usage of spectrum fees in Germany. Obviously, debt increasing are the dividend payments, both for DT and T-Mobile U.S. and the ongoing share buybacks on both sides of the Atlantic.

Gets me to my final statement here when it comes to the leverage ratio. The leverage ratio is extraordinarily good in the second quarter with 2.51, including leases and 2.11, excluding leases. But bear in mind, that will change in the third quarter given that we have closed 2 deals, which we're happy with, Metronet and UScellular. And obviously, we see an increase in net debt happening in the third quarter.

That completes my half year review, and I hand it over to Tim.

Thank you, Christian. On the final page, a quick reminder of our key messages this quarter and our Capital Markets Day targets of around EUR 2.5 adjusted earnings per share in 2027. Now, in this quarter, not everybody might be satisfied about the net adds in broadband, Germany and the intense price competition in this market. Most of our competitors are showing shrinking revenues and EBITDA, we show growth, but I'm not happy that these companies are shrinking. This is not good. But despite this observation, we are delivering as a group, a very consistent, reliable growth.

Despite some headwinds here in Germany, we are on track for the full year guidance 2025 and confirm that including our confirmation for the midterm Capital Markets targets. We are extending our network leadership on both sides of the Atlantic. And we have announced, for instance, the gigabit mobile network for Germany, which is now up and running. We delivered a record customer growth and a guidance upgrade for our U.S. operations. We have created exciting new growth opportunities throughout our successful M&A transactions, which we have completed.

We are making strong progress with AI-powered digitization, and we are on track for the resulting efficiency targets. Our leverage is well within the comfort zone, and we are not directly affected by the tariff changes and we are a beneficiary of fiscal measures to stimulate investments on both sides of the Atlantic. So overall, good outlook for the future.

And with this, I hand it over to Hannes.

Okay. Thank you, Tim, and thank you, Christian. Next, we have the Q&A part.

[Operator Instructions] So first question, I think, is from James Ratzer.

Yes. So I had 2 questions, please. So firstly, I think obviously a lot of folks on the German broadband net adds trend. So I'd be keen to drill in a bit more on the comments you mentioned around an MDU person and a retention focus in the overbuilt areas. If I think about your H2 trends, should we read from this that you're planning to be a bit more price competitive and that broadband net adds can recover? Or do you still expect kind of losses to continue in the second half?

And then the second question I had was, I just love to learn a little bit more about the deal you signed with NVIDIA and in particular, some of the kind of financial impacts around that. Is this going to be an off-balance sheet deal? I mean, how much will Deutsche Telekom be investing in this project? And can you help us to think about how to quantify the revenue upside from this deal over the longer term?

James, let me start with the broadband expectation for the second half of the year. You heard Tim saying that we are focusing on an MDU push that we have selective retention measures because churn has come up and that we're also trying to go for regional pricing aspect. Since we are basically calibrating around the 0 line from negative 7% in the first quarter and negative 20% in the third quarter, I think we're still in the value game. And we are trying to stabilize the business and doing our best to actually push for ARPA growth. You've seen that we have some promising results in the retail space on ARPA growth.

Whether it's going to be positive, whether it's going to be slightly negative, I think it's hard to predict. So I would say stabilization is the right word for the second half.

There's another discussion, which I'd like to add, Christian, which is the initiatives from the Minister of digitization that they will ease with a new policy the access to the nets [indiscernible], so the in-house cabling. And our strong position is on this one, the one who's building it is giving access to this network to all players. So once you build it, everybody can access it. And the one who is first is the one who is owning it than rather having overbuilt in the last mile here.

So there is a political consultation going on now with the Bundesnetzagentur. And our position is very clear. This would definitely help that we haven't kind of unprotected access for our services in every MDU as well. So this is the regulatory framework, which is helping us, hopefully, to get more lines into the MDUs.

Your second question, look, Deutsche Telekom is already invested through our venture capital arm DTCP in data centers. And by the way, we own them. It's not that we have only minority shareholdings here. Minecubes and GreenScales are 2 data center providers who have infrastructure. On top of that, Deutsche Telekom and its system is running data centers on its own. We are now thinking about how we can bundle these activities going forward. And we see an unbelievable high pull from governmental and from industrial services for sovereign cloud architecture here.

So how is the investment now looking? Our part is going to be to invest into the infrastructure -- data center infrastructure. And we have opportunities to double down on them where we have allowances already in a very short time window. On top of that, we have NVIDIA with their GPU commitment, 10,000 graphic cards, which they are providing to our partnership here. This is an investment coming from their angle.

Interesting wise, the so-called AI gigafactory, which is the big European initiative, this is something where an Europe-wide RFQ is in place but we don't want to wait until this is provided or accomplished. We're going to start in the first quarter next year by deploying the NVIDIA ships already in data center infrastructure so that the first customers can use and test these capabilities so that we are before the wave in this regard. And this is a participation then from NVIDIA and us in existing infrastructure, which is already available and fitting to the GPU requirements. The most likely scenario, by the way, for the AI gigabitfactory is an off-balance sheet investment.

Okay. Thanks, Tim. Thanks, Christian. And with that, we move on to Robert at Deutsche Bank, please.

I wonder if you don't mind taking yourselves back a couple of months, the whole section, U.S. 899 taxing within a major cash tax positive from bonus depreciation. M&A approvals have been received but the expense of at least headline DEi objectives. Tim, you've always been a great fan of the U.S. has your view changed at all from any of this?

And secondly, I had a question on leverage moving up Q3 versus the low levels of Q2. But note, the U.S. M&A more within the balance sheet guidance. 1 year almost since the CMD, are you getting closer to deploying any of that more than EUR 15 billion of balance sheet firepower or still a bit early to be thinking about that?

First of all, Robert, let me comment on both sides of the Atlantic. First of all, we highly appreciate what's happened in the U.S., especially the bonus depreciation, which gives us a lot of cash tax relief. And you heard Peter talking about the EUR 1.5 billion, which they're going to expect in 2026. Internally, we have been always skeptical that the retaliation tax, as we call it, the U.S. 899 would actually come into effect because we don't see a lot of support for the digital service tax year in the European environment. So we're seeing benefits on this one. But I think we should also bear in mind that we have cash benefits in the German environment because we have the accelerated depreciation of 30% in the German environment. And we have the corporate income tax reduction starting from '28 onwards by 1 percentage every year.

Let me dwell on the accelerated depreciation. There's a second factor to this. So the total effect, which we expect in between '26 and '28 is roughly EUR 500 million. And the reason being is that you can only deduct or depreciate 3x of the linear depreciation value. So if you have infrastructure, which is depreciated over 20 or 30 years, obviously, you cannot depreciate 30% in a given year. It's only 15% or 10%.

But still, the benefit is over the course of '26 to '28, roughly EUR 28 billion. On leverage, look, my expectation is that we will end the year very close to the target we've given ourselves. Obviously, there's a lot of wiggle room, especially the dollar, which was a great support when it comes to leverage in the second quarter. And that does include the, let's say, the 2 acquisitions of Metronet and USC but how we basically will deal with the EUR 15 billion too early to tell because we have to take a look what's needed in order to support the business midterm. So if we have something which we can call out, we will do it but I don't want to speculate on this one.

Okay. So with that, thanks, Robert. We move on to [ Akhil ] at JPMorgan, please.

I've got 2. Firstly, if I could go back to the comments around the German broadband market. And maybe if I can ask this a little bit differently. If we look at the top 4 operators across the markets, yourselves, Vodafone, Telefonica and 1&1 aggregated, you lost about 100,000 customers in broadband this quarter, which is quite a step change in the prior quarter. So it feels like something has changed amongst the market. So obviously, yes, competition, but even aggregated, you've lost a much higher number of customers than before. So given the work you're doing, looking at segmentation, can you maybe help us understand what you think that is? Is that purely all nets? Or is it something else? And if it's altnets, is there some color you can give us on exactly what's going in the mix so we can better understand that and better gauge how we should think about it going forward?

And then the second one is a much bigger picture question on the U.S. Tim, you mentioned the Lumos and Metronet deal that have now closed, which is obviously nice to see. Over the interim period, we've obviously seen your U.S. peers also scale up their ambitions in the U.S. fiber market. So in that context, I'd love to understand how you think about the opportunity for growth there. Do you think there is an opportunity to go bigger? And if there is, can you really do that organically? Or do you still think -- or do you think there could be an opportunity for M&A?

Look, [ Akhil, ] thank you for the question. Look, the broadband market in Germany is largely saturated. And the overall growth is very slow. In this environment, we are seeing the impact of overbuilders, which is no longer overcompensated from our sites by wins, which began from Vodafone churn. Vodafone is very aggressive on pricing to keep their customers in their loop. I even don't understand how they can afford this subsidization, which they're doing on Check24, for instance, have a look on this one. But they're trying to do everything to keep that churn low.

Now therefore, the market is -- it's so slow that we are not able to overcompensate the churn, which we are seeing on the altnets. The altnets, themselves are not focusing on homes passed anymore. They are very much focusing on homes connected in this environment. So their build-out rate has slowed down but their efforts to make promotional offers for homes connected has gone up.

In this environment, we were trying to focus on value, and we have reduced our promos at the beginning of the year. For instance, we went from 6 months to 3 months on the discounts and this is one of the reasons why -- how we can explain the sequential slowdown, which we had in this quarter. So we are staying and we said that, again, we want to focus on the value of this industry because it doesn't make sense. On the one side, to build very costly and expensive fiber infrastructure. And you are aware that our fiber infrastructure in Germany is much more expensive than it is in other markets. And we want to keep the ARPA on a level, which is amortizing this infrastructure. Nevertheless, we see that some players are focused on contribution to margin in this environment.

Now, do I like it? No. Do I hope that even the other players do the economics well? Yes, I hope, but I don't -- can't speak from them. But what we want to do is we stay on our focus on building the infrastructure, 2.5 million annually. We are focusing on, let's say, bringing the customers into the fiber infrastructure by 1 million in 2027 and 0.5 million last year. And then what we're going to do is to try and to focus as well to grow the ARPA in this environment, which is a little bit, let's say, possible I would say.

So, it's a long-term value play, which we are trying to find. But what you can see is this is not at least supporting the volume growth at that point in time. So we have to make a watch out. We see where the market is going. But you see the consequence of our value strategy, at least in this quarter, and we will observe the situation going forward.

I can do the U.S. market. Sorry, we were. Look, as we said before, we don't look at fixed wireless convergence as an end in itself but it's one of our numbers of way to increase customer attachment. That said, let's say, we like the broadband space, which is a combination of fixed wireless access, which continues to be a fellow capacity business as well as investing in fiber, where we like the economics and where we are just getting started. And by the way, the economics of the fiber market in the U.S. is much more attractive than in most of the European markets.

And with Lumos and Metronet approvals, we have now a much stronger basis to prove the success here. We are already a scale player in broadband, looking at our more than 7 million existing fixed wireless access customers and our 12 million target by 2023 -- 30. And we have even fellow capacity, which is helping us to extend it to more homes. About half of the U.S. homes where we're going to deploy fixed wireless access or high-speed Internet, as we call it.

Plus we extend to get to 12 million to 15 million homes passed with our Lumos and Metronet activities. So I would say we have a good hand, we are very clean in the way how we're doing. We are an alt-net in a kind of way in the U.S. market, and we remain open for clean incremental fiber opportunities in the U.S. market. But they have to be right, and they have to fit from an economic perspective, they have to fit into our footprint and they have to come at the right price. So we are not somewhat under super pressure here. We keep on going in this direction, and we have built the foundation.

Great. With that, we move on to Josh Mills at Exane BNP Paribas.

Two for me and one of them would be on the broadband trends in Germany again. I'd just like to pick up on Tim's comment there about the German broadband market being saturated. And I'd be interested to know whether you're seeing any increase in overall Broadband demand or penetration in the areas that you're rolling out fiber to the home too, i.e., could this be a tool to grow the size of the overall market perhaps offer release valve for some of the competitive intensity in the market we're seeing today if everybody can grow? Or do you see that in areas where you roll out fiber, there isn't really much real impact on overall broadband demand?

And then secondly, on the AI investments that you flagged earlier in the presentation, you are one of the few, if not the only European telcos with the scale and the free cash flow today to seriously participate in these kind of AI investments. I'd be interested to hear whether you're already in conversations with other European telcos and how you can partner with them, offer them your services or perhaps you sell in some of your services directly? And if there's that option in the future as well?

Good questions. By the way, to the first one, look, we are differentiating between Broadband and Fiber to the home. And I can tell you 1 thing. I'm happy with the take-up rates on FTTH guys. We had 137,000 net adds on the FTTH side in the German market. And people like the product, like the service, could be better but we see a constant higher demand for fiber. So therefore, where we deploy it, we find ways even to sell it to our customer base.

Is this already satisfying? No. We have to -- we want to do more, and we want to utilize our factory in a better way but we are on a good track in this regard. The numbers not being able to overcompensate the classical line losses, and they are mainly driven by altnets. These are areas where we haven't built out where the altnets are building their fiber infrastructure. So FTTH is the answer going forward.

Second question, AI Investments. And I can tell you, for me, for the company, AI is going to be the game changer for the whole company. And I'm thinking about how is this company looking in 10 years, driven by AI by agent. And even by super intelligence is at one point in time, which is -- and the agent models are already being used in our companies. I talked about one example earlier, which is in the network. The cyber and the anomaly detection in our network. It's handed by AI, and the agent is already taking actions to fix things in a much faster than humans can do.

We still have a human interface in between because we do not want to hand over this activities already to a machine. But prospectively, we're going to, let's say, change entirely the setup for the network architecture and the network handling going forward. One example. I see huge benefits on the customer service and the sales organization. To be honest, it's not about -- only about efficiency. It is as well about, let's say, the personalization of services. To be honest, I'm very happy what these guys are doing. And the cost savings, which we are seeing are in the 30s.

I see super big impact coming with regard to contextual marketing, bundling the data of our company with data from the outside and the social medias and other sources, which gives us more opportunities for better tailored offers. And I can go on and on. We recently saw the first models where we are using AI agents for internal service like internal audit where the agents are already trying to find anomalies with regard to compliance supervision and other things. So there are a lot of good examples. It will change every process in this company. Every product, every process has to apply AI. And that is, let's say, the discussion we're having.

Now we have to cross the river by feeling the stones. This is definitely the way going forward. But there will be audacious targets, which we should define for our organization that they understand where we are aiming for. And that is the discussion, which I have with my fellow Board colleagues here right now. And to be honest, I believe there is much more opportunity in the organization with regard to efficiency and other targets than what we have laid out yet. But to be honest, I do not want to commit to something I don't know yet. But I'm -- and we are very excited about the opportunity here.

Can I chime in on the Broadband? Just quickly, Josh. I would say the growth is coming 1/3 from volume. So if you assume there's 200, 000 to 250,000 volume growth in the German market and 2/3 have to come from ARPA given the size of broadband customers, which we have, that is kind of the rule of thumb, how I would envision the growth in the broadband market.

Great. Okay. Next, we have Polo at UBS, please.

I have 2. The first one is just about the in EUR 500 billion German infrastructure fund. So what do you think the impact will be in terms of the German market and could Deutsche Telekom be a beneficiary. Second question is really just a follow-up in terms of the EU AI gigafactory opportunity you mentioned how it could be an off-balance sheet venture. But could you clarify what role Deutsche Telekom would have? And what is the business model for Deutsche Telekom?

Look, the EUR 500 billion German infrastructure fund is a big opportunity for Deutsche Telekom. And by the way, you see that already. If you look to T-Systems and the double-digit growth on the digitization efforts, you see that there is an increased demand from public spendings into this direction. Germany has to digitize and money is going into this direction. And we have multiple opportunities, which we consider in this regard.

On top of that infrastructure is always -- I don't see that there is additional funding going into subsidization for fiber. At least the market is already hot. The construction capabilities are limited. So if you put a lot of money on top of that, you would only increase the prices but you will not increase the output of it. So therefore, this is a tricky undertaking. So we are not lobbying for getting significantly higher subsidization for the fiber build-out. We are looking more for infrastructure support on the data center side and on the gigabit side in this regard.

Now I was with the Chancellor and others. There has been this huge EUR 630 billion investment commitment from German industries into the -- into Germany for the future. Yes, a lot of that is already existing or committed CapEx but there is additional CapEx as well on this one. And for every infrastructure, which has been built you need connectivity, you need our data centers. You need software. And therefore, we see from the political side and from the business side, we see upside on the German market on the software and the digitization perspective.

And then we have these areas of health and on defense, where we see additional money going into as well. I just had a discussion with the -- an hour ago with the CEO of Rheinmetall, who is -- and we discussed as well about opportunities here. So to me, without being now in the position to say, okay, there's EUR 50 million going in this one and this one, there must be something in for the German telecommunication providers, for the companies who are providing software.

And on top of that, I can tell you after all this tariff discussions, you know there is a shock in Europe with regard to sovereignty; a huge pull on the sovereignty discussion. All data centers are all fully deployed. You know that from other companies you're covering, there is no capacity in the market there. And that is what we are using these days, expanding our capacity on the data center side, which brings me to your second question.

And you should always differentiate. We have a 2-step approach. The first step approach is now the approach of filling data center with GPUs and that the companies can already test it and governmental services. So we are not waiting until the so-called gigafactory opportunity is decided. To be honest, I don't like the word gigafactory too much because it will not be that somebody is building a gigabitfactory. It will come with the utilization, it will come on demand. So it might grow into a gigabitfactory but it will not be that all the investments will be put into the country side and then we're waiting for customers. It will grow into this gigabit factory over time, and we have applied for that.

Our concept today is that we have a partnership with the state of North-Rhine Westphalia, that is where we are -- where our headquarters is sitting. We are trying to partner as well with RWE, not final decided on sites for the cold sites or nuclear power plant sites, where we have water and power supply and access to things where approvals have been given in the past where we can implement the data center infrastructure. And on top of that, without saying too much here, we have a partnership with Brookfield, a very successful one, as you know, which is our tower company. And these guys are very, very committed and interested to build this gigabitfactory with us so that we have a very strong partner on the core investment side.

So we have a strong -- a very strong group of people together. There is competition, no question about it. But at least we have a way forward. And we have already a nucleus with Minecubes and GreenScale and with experience in the group, which we can use now for the planning and the deployment of it.

Okay. Great. So now we move on to Carl at Citi, please.

Two questions from me, please. Firstly, slightly just following up on Polo's, but from a more short-term basis, I suppose. You're talking about the large-scale kind of public sector opportunities. But for the last few quarters, we've obviously seen IT business phasing kind of drag. So any forward visibility on timing of return of government spend but more kind of in the next few quarters rather than the longer-term opportunity?

And secondly, just on the customer contract IFRS 15 adjustments. I wanted to ask when was the court ruling made in relation to the customer contract accounting one-off? And when did you understand the extent of the impact it would have on revenue EBITDA? I guess I'm trying to understand why the bulk of the impact is in this quarter and whether it might have been possible to sign post the issue ahead of today.

Let me start on the IT situation. So first of all, we're seeing a stronger demand for IT project relative to telco projects. And that naturally supports T-Systems more than it does support the German segment. The second one is I think this, to a large degree, the budget for this year wasn't been signed. And therefore, the -- I would say, the projects were hold back.

What we're seeing right now is the fastest demand is coming from federal and has to trickle down into the state -- federal state budgets, and that will take some time. So this is why T-Systems is -- since they're focusing on the very large customers, is more in favor of grabbing that opportunity at least sooner than the German business is doing. And this is why we see this different, let's say, speeds between T-Systems and the German business when it comes to the IT space.

The second question on IFRS accounting, do you have the number?

Yes. Well, this was a ruling that was actually a court ruling in -- against a competitor of ours, Vodafone. We had to evaluate this decision and also take a view on when we would adjust our contracts because that's something that takes time. Now I would also say while it is a headline hit to EBITDA this quarter, as we have clearly communicated is noncash. It will come back. So therefore, we did not feel it was, let's say, big enough to create this, let's say, potentially unusual levels of disclosure.

Okay. With that, we go on to Ottavio at Bernstein.

A couple of questions. The first one is going back on the German broadband. During the call, almost used altnets and other builders as synonym. But my question is, how big is the -- really the overbuild between you and the altnets in Germany? In the U.K., it's relatively lower than 10%. So I was wondering what's the rate in Germany? And also, you mentioned that you expect the run rate on connection to reach 1 million all around 2027? So the question is there, it's all due to the fact that you're running a point-to-multipoint and it's difficult for you to build a drop into the MDUs or there is also an issue with demand.

The second one is for pretty straightforward. It's for Christian, and is on the guidance provided for the progression on EBITDA growth for the rest of the year. You mentioned about the third quarter that will be impacted by a number of issues. But then you guided for fourth quarter to go back to the run rate. So my question is, what's the run rate? Is the one we've seen in H1 that roving around 2% with the run rate is what you guided for the midterms between 2.5% and 3%?

Look, the first thing is you're totally right. We have to differentiate between altnets and overbuilders. And to give you a quick answer, the amount of overbuild is very, very small. It is a single-digit number. That is, let's say, where we are in Germany. And by the way, it's not my number. It's the public stated number from the Bundesnetzagentur, which was recently published. And the Bundesnetzagentur are going to state it as well that there is no problem with overbuilding in Germany. So that they have to interfere or regulate something. This is now public.

And by the way, I think this is totally correct and is reflecting as well how we are looking on the markets. Now there are due to the size of this country areas where Deutsche is not building. We always have customers in every kind of village of this country but there are areas where we are not building. This is a market where the altnets are mainly gaining their customer growth today. Due to the fact that they are going away from homes passed to very much homes connected, they are now very much pushing to migrate our customers onto their fiber infrastructures.

On top of that, the estimation of BUGLAS and some other [ Areco ] and other institutes were that the growth of the whole market is slowing down as well, including the fiber build-out. I said -- I told you about the numbers in my speech. We are trying to partner in all the regions with all, let's say, regional players where these altnets are being built, being it EWE TEL, being at Wilhelm.Tel, being it M-net, being it NetCologne, being all these players to partner with this alternative networks that our customers can use the telekom services based on a dark fiber access, which we gained from this -- get from this local players.

So this is working nicely. We have more than 43 partnerships already today. Some of them don't want dark fiber. But in these areas, we might then consider to overbuild but that is only a fraction of where we are seeing. So we are trying to optimize the CapEx spend in our footprint and concentrating on the areas where nobody is building today. So this is a little bit.

The problem, which we have for the broadband and I want to reiterate that is the migration from copper or cable, by the way, cable is copper as well into fiber, should get -- should increase. It has to be higher. The run rate is still too slow. We have to fill the fiber pipes. And then over time, we will grow our net asset as well again.

Okay. So Ottavio, to your second question, if I'm talking about run rate, I'm talking about the 2%, which you have seen in the first half. And therefore, it's -- since there's a structural benefit since the wage agreement is rolling over, there's a structural benefit in Q4, and this is why we're saying above. Don't nail me to the table, whether it's going to be 2.5%, 2.2% or 2.7% because I think this is -- I'm clearly not in the position to predict this but we expect something, which is above 2% for the fourth quarter.

Okay. Thanks, Chris, and thanks, Tim. With that, we move on to Steve at Redburn, please.

Just a couple, please. Just first on tax. And apologies, Christian, I didn't follow all the very useful information that you gave on tax about half an hour ago. Just TMUS has obviously given a fairly clear steer what the impact of bonus depreciation will be on them. Can you just clarify, back at the Capital Markets Day, I think you said there'd be EUR 0.5 billion drag on the ex-TMUS cash flows between '23 and '27 in your guidance. Is that still the case? Or has that improved given the changes we've seen in the German tax legislation?

And then just on your T-Mobile stake, Tim, I think you gave a fairly clear steer as well at CMD last year, you wanted to get your stake up in the kind of mid high 50s. We've seen SoftBank selling overnight, another 3 million -- other 3%, sorry, or so sorry -- 30 million shares, I get maths right. Maybe just update us on your sort of thoughts on your -- the trajectory of your stake in TMUS and maybe why you weren't interested in buying that stake and how we think about the moving parts of the TMUS shareholding going forward, that would be very helpful.

So let me repeat on the tax equation. So we have basically 2 tax benefits which affect the free cash flow. The one is the accelerated depreciation, which is you can depreciate up to 30% in the first year. If it's -- and it's limited to 3x the linear depreciation in Germany. So that effect and then you have corporate income tax benefits, which are starting in '28. So you only see the first effect of corporate income tax in the -- at the end of '28, which is a little one.

If you add them all up, it's roughly EUR 500 million, close to EUR 500 million free cash flow benefit but we haven't discussed how we're going to use that benefit. So that is a structural improvement relative to what we discussed at CMD.

On the T-Mobile stake, look, from our shareholding, we are on the right trajectory. You saw the 52% where we are today. To be honest, nothing new with regards to the SoftBank sale here. We were very transparent on that one that we know that they are going to reduce their shareholding within the company because Masa Son and SoftBank Group is now aiming for this big investment in the gigafactories in the U.S. and on Stargate and the like and their investments probably as well in open AI.

So therefore, we were aware of it then. Most of their shares were anyhow delta hedged. So therefore, we knew that they would not have the greater use overhang. I see a positive impact from that guys because the free float is going up and that is something, which is sorry?

It's DT.

Yes. So therefore, we see a benefit coming from that SoftBank is selling their shares in DT and as well in their U.S. for foothold here. So on that one, to be honest, I was a little bit unhappy that we got this announcement on Bloomberg this morning because this has created some uncertainty around it. But for us, this was nothing new. I have to excuse for this coincidence on the announcement here. But for us, the development is nothing new. It's nothing where we see a downside, I even see for the DT shares an upside due to the higher free float, which we're going to see on our stock here.

And Steve, to your question, why did we not pick up shares from SoftBank. We are -- as you know, we are currently acting as a seller in the market, and therefore, being a seller and the buyer at the same time would be inappropriate, let's say, that way. So because we have the ongoing program.

So with that, we move on to Paul Sidney at Berenberg, please.

I just had 2 on the German market. If we take a step back and look at your German business as a whole. There are so many subscriber KPIs that we obsess about every quarter. You obviously disclosed very detailed granular revenue, service revenue growth trends, profitability metrics and ultimately, free cash flow on a quarterly basis. But I just wondered, internally, how will you judge and monitor the success of the German business, both in the short term and the long term?

And then just secondly, a very general question about the potential for consolidation in the German market. I fully appreciate that mega consolidation among the listed operators may be difficult. But there's obviously a lot of private companies out there, infrastructure, et cetera. I just wondered if you see any prospects for any future consolidation to improve the value creation potential of the German market?

Okay. So on the -- on your question, short and long term, I think the crucial metric on the broadband side is how many fiber net adds do you have? How many new customers are you adding to your network because that shows the momentum. And this is why we have given ourselves an ambitious target to have 1 million by the year '27. And on Mobile, I think it's clearly whether we're gaining market share, which we are continuously doing. And we're doing this over the volume strategy. You see that our performance has been consistently 250 to 300 despite the last quarter because of this large corporate account. But we expect this to work out fine.

What I said earlier on, especially in the retail consumer market, we've seen a pickup of the net adds in the second quarter relative to the first quarter. This is due to Next Magenta 4.0. So this is a product which has picked up very nicely in the market. So that would be my 2 KPIs.

But I hand it over to Tim. He's probably more creative than I am in adding some additional ones.

No, no, you are very creative. So therefore, the first one, by the way. For me, the most important on the German business is that our customer base is very happy and we have the highest Net Promoter Score. And you know that we have a stable base. And we develop our customers into the next generation with new services and the like. mobile, fixed line convergence, TV and other services that they are staying with us forever. It's a relation for life. And that is something what we want. We have a great customer base, and that is where even our value sits.

The second thing is, as Christian said, is the fiber deployment and, let's say, the monetization of these investments. And I can tell you one thing, if this market is only looking on contribution to margin, nobody will be able to afford investments, which are needed to build the fiber infrastructure. And I can tell you, we are not sleeping on our tree. We do our math. We have our business case, we have our net present value. We have a clear understanding about, let's say, the cost and the cost for the deployment. And I would expect that investors in the altnets or investors at Vodafone into the densification of the network, they do the same math. So it is our duty, it is our duty for all players that we are bringing up the value of this market.

Otherwise, we would all end with headaches. And that is what we are trying to do by increasing the ARPA by increasing prices, that is by doing our homeworks on trying massively to reduce the deployment cost for the homes passed infrastructure. This is why we made the recommendation that we only built the last mile once, then rather building it multifold, which is only creating cost. I'm trying to optimize the value of this infrastructure, which is heavily challenged in this environment.

And on top of that, we are lobbying intensively and we have great support from the Minister of Digital Services here in Germany, with regard to reducing bureaucracy, reducing the approval cost and the like that the whole ecosystem is coming into a fruitful development. I'm not happy to be very clear. I'm not happy to see the numbers of shrinking EBITDA and shrinking service revenues of Vodafone, Telefonica, [indiscernible]. This is not healthy for no one.

So therefore, we all have the duty on this one, and I see even duty on my side. And therefore, let's focus on differentiation, let's focus on quality. Let's focus on the service proposition and our brand. This is, let's say, our value play, which we are trying to play here. But I can tell you, in this environment is not an easy one at that point in time. And I understand the headaches, which some of the investors had today, I have the same one. But nevertheless, this is the duty, which we have as investors.

Okay. Yes, there was the question whether there's scope for consolidation to improve the market. And I guess, Paul, you were not referring to mobile market consolidation. You were referring to potential fixed line market consolidation. Now German fixed line market is very fragmented. There's many small players out there that, in principle, are probably unsustainable. But at the same time, that doesn't make consolidation or relevant consolidation easy to do. And there are some, of course, early steps towards consolidation in the industry. We are happy to explore certain forms of collaboration, mainly with focus on passive infrastructure. And we are open-minded. The German antitrust regime, however, is quite restrictive. So we would need to be creative and have some openings there. And of course, it's not our obligation or job to bail out failing overbuilders.

Again, good question. Look, I'd like to add, if there is an opportunity of reasonable prices, Christian, myself, we are willing to test the water in this regard to see whether the political environment is reflecting the situation of too many players in one point here and whether this is helping the economics of the whole industry. So, we are willing to test it, but there is no opportunity at that point in time.

Good. And I think my understanding last question for this call is from David at Bank of America.

A couple of questions, Christian. I hope you don't mind, I'm going to push you a little bit more on -- I believe it was Robert's question on the balance sheet. You have had unexpected fiscal benefits this year from the bonus tax depreciation in the U.S. and also some optimism, I think, in Germany. You have now switched to full participation in the U.S. buyback. You've committed EUR 2 billion of buyback until this year-end but nothing thereafter. And we are expecting you to probably update on your dividend alongside the Q3.

Why would you not, why would you not extend the buyback? And I also refer to a share price at EUR 30 right now, which I'm sure isn't the level you guys would like to go on holiday with? And then if you don't mind, a second question. And I'm sorry about this, German broadband and I am very hesitant to say this, given your recent comment, time about BT as an investment, but it does sound an awful lot like BT. We have a lot of altnet. We have increasing line loss. The altnets is focusing on connectivity instead of build and it's starting to impact the market. Now altnets of the remedies that BT took was to accelerate their fiber build. Now a lot of these pressures have manifested since you set your fiber target at the CMD of 2.5 million lines. What is the potential that you guys have to raise that target, build faster and slow the line loss? So the 2 questions.

Okay. So first of all, on the balance sheet. Look, we have been very transparent around the EUR 500 million over the course of the 3 years and the peak is actually in '27. And to be honest, the answer to that is we haven't discussed it, how we're going to use the proceeds. But as I said to James, it's a structural benefit relative to our October communication. In the U.S., I can only basically repeat what Peter was indicating as a potential that they were going for faster integration of UScellular, which obviously brings in faster run rate synergies. So they have something that at least they can discuss but I'm not sure whether they've taken that final discussion.

On the share buyback on the prolongation, David, I think it's premature to discuss it right now. You know we have kind of a rhythm and the rhythm is Q3 where we usually talk about the dividend expectation for next year and/or let me communicate in a very vague form a potential additional share buyback, which we haven't decided yet. But I think I would wait until we have the November call. And then you should expect an answer from us how we want to proceed with the DT share buyback going forward and the dividend.

I'd like comparison with BT. So that is hopefully waking up everybody here in my organization. So therefore -- so -- with this comment, I leave it. So I can only lose by commenting something on this one. But to be honest, look, we are thinking all parts. And we have all hands on deck on the question about how can we generate the value play here on this side. Now there's one observation. I believe that the altnets, they are in a late blossom at that point in time because it's not about only homes connected and utilizing the infrastructure they have, they even have to grab new land, and they have to even build more.

What we see and what we hear, this is not taking place because investors are not willing to invest even or double down in this business model with these guys because they see that independent from the net adds the economics of this market is not working. So therefore, I'm not so afraid about the future and the way forward. I have to tackle now with my short-term challenges here and with the homes connected. But I do not see that the altnets or others are doubling down and suddenly making more. it is more than net adds. It is the economics of the whole business case, which is very challenged in this environment if the ARPUs are not going up.

The second thing is, in this environment, we won't stop. So we go for the 2.5 million. And to be honest, we do not want to increase construction costs and all of this at that point in time. It's already very complex to build 2.5 million households at that point in time. So we do not have now plans or capacity to double down. So this is just the reality. Maybe that might be relaxed over time, but at that point, it's not possible.

The third one is, we are intensively discussing new partnerships in Germany. And I can promise you, this quarter, you will see big partnership coming. I cannot talk about that one today, but we have already handshaked on something here. So that we are not trying, let's say, to build the capacity always with our own but to find new partners who are offering their capacities to us so that our telecom signal, as we always call it, this is, let's say, going to a bigger footprint as well. So this is helping the market as well. The utilization of the existing infrastructure. So partnership is another model going forward.

And I can tell you, I do not want to heat up the market with my customers. So we will do everything that you know the altnets are not eating my cake. And that is why we launched the unbreakable proposition with 500 megabit per second. It might be an interim technology, but I can tell you it will be a convincing one. Most of the customers are meeting in these areas. They're telling me one thing, I'm with telekom forever, we like telekom very much, great service, I don't want to go away from you guys. If you have an alternative, we would we would always stay with you guys.

So I have to build a bridge for these customers. And the new proposition with unbreakables definitely an answer on this one. And that is a much more reasonable one than now in this difficult economic environment double down on the investments.

Okay. As I mentioned, David, I think your questions were the last one. Thank you very much, ending on a high. Okay. So and that brings our conference call to an end. And we'd like to thank you, as always, for participating and your good questions.

And should you still have further questions, we kindly ask you to contact the Investor Relations department and look forward to talk to you again soon. Goodbye.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Deutsche Telekom's Second Quarter 2025 Conference Call. As you can see, with me today is our CEO, Tim Hottges and our CFO, Christian Illek. As usual, Tim will first go through his midyear highlights followed by Christian, who will talk about the quarterly performance and our group financials. After this, we have time for Q&A.

Before I hand over to Tim, please pay attention to our usual disclaimer, which you will find in the presentation. And please also note that this conference will be recorded and uploaded to the Internet. And now it's my pleasure to hand over to Tim.

Thank you, Hannes, and welcome to our first half 2025 results call. We continue to deliver consistent, reliable growth. Amidst the competition and the global tariff turmoil, we remain on course, and we even slightly raised our guidance for 2025. As usual, I will start with the year-to-date view for the group before Christian will dive into the details of our second quarter results. Our growth momentum has remained strong and steady. Our flywheel strategy keeps working. In the first 6 months of 2025, we delivered 3.7% organic service revenue growth, 5.2% organic EBITDA growth, 17.8% growth in free cash flow and 6.4% growth in adjusted earnings per share.

With these results, we are on track for the midterm targets of the last Capital Markets Day. And while there are some incremental headwinds, there are many incremental positives, including upside from M&A, T-Mobile spectrum disposals and from fiscal relief on both sides of the Atlantic. I'm especially happy with our progress on the M&A front. In Europe, we got clearance for the sale of our Romanian mobile business. This win-win transaction brings much needed in-market consolidation while improving the growth profile for our European segment.

In the U.S. We closed the Metronet and the U.S. Cellular transaction. This comes after the Lumos fiber joint venture and the 2 out-of-home advertising companies, Vista and Bliss. We are now looking forward to the incremental growth that these transactions will bring. T-Mobile also sold part of the 3.45 gigahertz spectrum for EUR 2 billion and agreed to sell our 800 megahertz spectrum in exchange for cash and some valuable 600 megahertz spectrum.

As you can see on the next page, all our segments are contributing to our EBITDA growth. DT ex U.S. grew by 3.6% year-over-year. Moving to our networks, where we continue to extend our leadership. In the last 12 months, we passed 3.4 million additional European homes with FTTH. We now reach nearly 22 million homes, of which 11 million here in Germany. In the U.S., we launched T fiber enabled by our 2 new fiber joint ventures. Our mobile network remains leading across the footprint. Our German network has ranked top European large country network and Ookla confirmed T-Mobile's network is the best network in the U.S.

2 weeks ago, T-Mobile also launched T satellite after a successful beta test. At last year's Capital Markets Day, we talked a lot about how AI is accelerating our digital transformation. And last quarter, I showed you various ongoing initiatives.

On Page 7, you can see the additional progress we have made as this remains a top priority. Let me pick out a few highlights. Our AI-based employee knowledge tool askT is already used by 30% of all German employees. The tool has now been rolled out in Greece and in other markets.

In the network, our AI-based remote monitoring agent is now moving towards implementation. AI-created lines of code increased to 10% of the total. And FragMagenta, our chat and voice bought is now reflecting 1.6 million calls already in the first half year. To make this tangible, 1.6 million deflected calls corresponds to about 133,000 call agent hours. At the Capital Markets Day for DT ex U.S. we estimated the financial benefit at around EUR 800 million in cost savings by 2027, and we see ourselves well on track for that.

Finally, on the product side, the active base in Magenta moments has grown to 4.8 million. So our rewards program is highly accepted. We are launching an AI Phone across our European footprint. We have partnered with NVIDIA to build Europe's first industrial AI factory, by the way, starting in the first quarter next year already. Over in the U.S., T-Mobile is making very impressive progress with their ambitious digitization plans, too.

As T-Mobile highlighted during their results call, the share of upgrades done digitally has increased about 2/3 from about half last quarter and virtually 01 year ago. T-Mobile's market-leading team live app has more than 75 million installed already. Our customer growth continues on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the U.S., we had the strongest second quarter and first half for postpaid customers net additions ever and we substantially raised the full year guidance. The second quarter was also a record quarter for postpaid phone customer net additions. And outside of the U.S., our intake remained strong, but we had fewer mobile net adds in Germany caused by a low-margin enterprise contract loss. Growth in the German consumer market remains strong also this quarter. Mobile in Germany is good.

Moving on to fixed KPI. Our DT ex U.S. broadband customer growth was positive but slowed due to Germany. Our TV customer growth was also slower, mainly due to the rollover of the tailwind from the Euro 24 championships in the prior year, this is not a headache. Let me put these trends in perspective.

As you all know, the German broadband market has slowed and competitive intensity has stepped up in recent quarters. But as before, we remain committed to our strategy, to our successful flywheel of differentiation. We have built the best networks and create a superior customer experience. In Germany, our mobile network is leading, and we are leading the fiber build-out as well. We are not happy with our German broadband customer losses this quarter, but ARPA growth develop positively. And we do understand fiber monetization is a long game, and we will continue to play the long game here. As you know, we deployed 2.5 million additional fiber homes passed per annum, and we are committed increased to do the same number again this year. We are connecting increasing numbers of customers with fiber.

As stated at the Capital Markets Day, we intend to double our annual run rate to EUR 1 million by 2027. In this context, we welcome the recent proposal of the new digital Ministry to accelerate fiber deployments, to remove bureaucratic hurdles and to facilitate in-house connections in the multi-dwelling units.

To stabilize our performance nearer term, we are stepping up as well. What are we doing? Regional and commercial segmentation. We are doing an MDU push. We are doing target retention activity, especially in overbuilt areas and last week, we also announced a hybrid broadband access product that can deliver up to 500 migs per seconds -- megabits per second.

Moving on to ESG. We continue our efforts to contain our energy consumption and emissions in line with our stated targets. Despite rising data consumption, we were able to slightly lower our DT ex U.S. energy consumption in the first half. In Germany, we conducted various campaigns, including campaigns against hate speech and loneliness and to empower Gen Z in data protection.

Let's now move on to our guidance update on the next page. Our guidance remains based on the last year's average forecast for the foreign exchange of EUR 1.08 and as always, is the sum of the guidance for DT ex U.S. and for T-Mobile U.S. adjusted by the U.S. GAAP IFRS bridge. T-Mobile raised its guidance for customers and financial growth on 23rd of July. T-Mobile raised both its 2025 EBITDA and free cash flow guidance by EUR 50 million at the midpoint. The new guidance includes the contribution from the recently completed acquisition of Metronet but not that of U.S. Cellular yet. We are passing this on in the group guidance today.

As a result, we now project group EBITDA of more than EUR 45 billion and free cash flow of more than EUR 20 billion for the whole of 2025. All other guidance remains unchanged. Our DT ex U.S. EBITDA guidance remains EUR 15 billion but this is now after an unexpected around EUR 50 million one-off headwind in Germany that Christian will talk about in a moment. So let me now hand it over to Christian for a deeper dive into the second quarter.

Yes. Thanks, Tim, and welcome from my side. As you know, let me start with the quarterly segment review and then discuss selected group financials. And as usual, let's start with the U.S., we have reported excellent results on the 23rd of July. If we're taking a look at the T-Mobile U.S. performance in local currency according to U.S. GAAP, you see that the service revenue has increased and accelerated to 6.1% growth, and that was largely driven by a very strong performance in postpaid service revenues, which accelerated to 9.1% on a year-on-year basis. It was driven, obviously, by the strong customer intake but also due to increases both in ARPA and ARPU.

The core EBITDA has grown by 6.4%. And as Tim already mentioned, that was one of the drivers why T-Mobile U.S. has raised its guidance both on EBITDA as well as some free cash flow. Moving to Page 13, you see the customer intake of T-Mobile in the second quarter. You see it was, as Tim already said, record breaking. The postpaid net additions were about EUR 1.7 billion. This is an increase of 400,000 relative to last year and the best ever quarter in Q2 they faced in their history. Same was true for the postpaid phone net adds. They increased by 53,000 relative to the last year's performance to 830,000, again, the best ever quarter for T-Mobile U.S. T-Mobile has added 318,000 new postpaid accounts. This is an increase of 6%, and they've added 454 new broadband 5G broadband customers, an increase of 12%.

So the churn was up by 10 basis points, as you can see, relative to the previous year and that reflects the rate plan optimization but it was clearly overcompensated by the strong customer intake on gross additions.

Following these results, T-Mobile raised this customer growth guidance. So for 2025, they expect now in between 6.1 million to 6.4 million net additions, relative to the old guidance of 5.5 million to 6 million. The guidance for phone net adds were close to 3 million to 3.1 million, and they also predict a customer intake of roughly 100,000 on fiber net adds.

Let's move over to Germany. As you can see, the headline revenues declined in the quarter and the -- 2 major drivers. The first one, the biggest one is one-off revenue, which we got from the sublicensing of the European champions of TV rights and the second one is we have to -- according to a court ruling, we have to change the way how we account for handset revenues if we early prolong contracts and that is a headwind, which impacts both revenues and EBITDA. The total amount of the impact is around EUR 50 million in the first half. It's noncash, and it will reverse over the course of the course of the next 24 months.

The total service revenue grew at 1.1% and EBITDA grew at 2%. So let me dwell a little bit on the EBITDA performance. So on the positive side, in the second quarter, you see that we obviously -- last year, we had to face the one-off wage payment on what we call energy support. This obviously is a head -- is a tailwind in the second quarter of '25. On the flip side, we have to absorb the 6% wage increase, which we agreed upon last year, starting in October '24. And also, we have to absorb the negative impact on the IFRS customer accounting.

So if I'm taking a look to the outlook of the EBITDA due to various phasing effects, but especially due to the wage increase, which we have to embrace in the third quarter, which we didn't have in the third quarter of last year, and an additional increase of EUR 190 salary increase starting from August 1 onwards, we expect that the EBITDA performance in the third quarter is below the current run rate.

On the flip side, we expect that the fourth quarter is actually above the current run rate. The reason is the wage impact will largely roll over the 6% wage increase. On top, and we said, I think, in the first quarter as well, we're facing some meaningful energy cost headwinds due to some increased grid fees but also hedging effects from the year 2022. This will also roll over in next year's financials.

Moving over to service revenue. The total service revenue is -- has slowed down to 1.1%, as I said earlier on. The slowdown in mobile service revenues comes after a stronger than usual quarter in Q1, and we mentioned this in the last call, should be not surprising to anybody. This quarter's growth is very similar to the second half of '24. But we remain absolutely comfortable with our guidance of 2% to 2.5% in the time frame of '23 to '27. The growth in fixed service revenues improved slightly sequentially but is still subdued. Fixed service revenue trends remain impacted by lower IT service revenue which decreased on a year-on-year basis and lagging government demand for especially telco services.

In addition, while positive, a broadband and wholesale revenues were sequentially weaker. Looking at the outlook for the remainder of the year, what you see on the chart is -- we had a very strong Q3 in last year's performance, and that was followed by performance in the fourth quarter, and that was the first quarter where we faced this IT revenue drag, which we are having over the course of the full year.

So if you compare those comp effects, we expect that the fixed service revenues will be from a growth perspective, being sequentially lower in Q3, but again, higher in Q4, same way as we described EBITDA. As you can see on Page 16, while overall service revenues remain subdued, broadband and wholesale access revenues remain in solid growth territory. We said that the main driver for the broadband growth, revenue growth will be value growth. And you see that the ARPA of our retail customer base has increased on a year-on-year basis by 3.5%. And that's mainly driven by upselling into higher speeds. And that continues to be the key driver of broadband revenue growth.

Moving over to the fixed line KPIs. So our monetization remains positively, our customer growth remained in negative territory. In the second quarter, we didn't perceive any changes in the competitive environment compared to the first quarter. We're still facing very slow overall market growth. We have ongoing pressure from the outlets or the overbuilders, and we saw a very promotional cable competitor in the second quarter.

We, on our side, had to reduce the promotional value beginning of the second quarter by cutting the discount period from 6 to 3 months, and we believe that explains the sequential slowdown in the broadband net adds. As you heard from Tim earlier, we're playing the long game here, and we remain focus on upselling and on fiber. So we're on track with our homes passed to add another 2.5 million of fiber homes passed onto the network this year. And we are trying -- we are increasingly connecting more and more fiber customers. Last quarter was 137,000, which is an increase of more than 20%.

As you recall, we intend to double our run rate to 1 million by the end of '27. Finally, on TV, what you see is still growth, but relatively smaller given some tailwinds last year. We added 23,000 IPTV customers and 40,000 over-the-top customers.

Moving over to mobile. And we're seeing some elevated competition for quite some time but still our commercials remain strong. Our B2C customer intake has actually increased Q-over-Q between Q1 and Q2, but we lost a sizable, and Tim mentioned it, low-margin B2B contract. And that basically explains the sequential slowdown in the second quarter. You see that the data growth is still strong, and we are seeing an unchanged churn rate of 0.8% per month.

Moving over to the European segment. The European segment delivered an excellent result in the second quarter. They're contributing now 30 quarters of consistent organic EBITDA growth. The organic revenue growth was 2.1%. The service revenue growth was actually higher at 2.6%, very comparable with T-mobile and broadband. The EBITDA growth was strong at 6.3%, and the slowdown is actually due to the rollover of inflation-driven price increases in some markets.

Moving over to the customer growth in the European operations. You see that strong performance, the mobile customer base has grown by 209,000 in the second quarter. We see a very strong performance across the footprint, especially in Poland and in Croatia. We also saw strong commercials in all the other categories, being it broadband, FMC or TV.

We made also further progress on the digitalization in the European segment. So the app penetration is now at 72%. And Magenta Moments members have reached 4.7 million, so we are well on track to meet our '27 targets of the CMD.

Moving over to T-Systems. T-Systems continues to be on a positive track. You see that the order book has increased by almost 12% on last 12 months. This is driven by the same drivers as you have seen in the last quarters. It's cloud, it's digital solutions and road charging. We're also seeing an increasing interest on digitalization projects and digital sovereignty offerings in the German market, and that leads to a strong organic revenue growth of almost 4% in the second quarter, and the organic EBITDA growth is slightly above 8% in the second quarter.

So T-Systems absolutely on track with its full year guidance but also with the CMD targets. So that's basically it for the operational review.

Now let's have a look at some selective financials. So overall, what you see is, obviously, we had a negative impact relative to the last year when it comes to the dollar, and we have seen some phasing impacts, which affect both free cash flow and earnings.

So if you take a look at the Page 23, you see that the free cash flow bridge, the free cash flow has decreased by 6.7%. This is largely explainable due to 2 factors. One is the weaker dollar and the other one is a negative working capital effects. We also see an increase relative to Q2 '24 on CapEx. This is not surprising because it was especially low in the first quarter. And if you combine the 2 quarters, we are still on 18% growth on free cash flow.

Taking a look at the net profit. It was impacted by a weaker dollar, that accounts roughly for EUR 400 million coming from the U.S. And we had some positive impacts in the last year's second quarter results. There was a release of an accrual of the health insurance for public servants and also, we had a derivative impact, which both accounted for EUR 0.04.

So if you take a look at the reported figures on EPS, they grew at 6.4% on a year-on-year basis. If you basically exclude what we call the nonrecurring effects, the growth is close to 10%, it's at 9.8%. So finally, net debt, you see that the net debt has decreased relative to the previous quarter in Q1 by EUR 2.7 billion. This is basically driven by 3 factors. One is the EUR 4.9 million (sic) [ EUR 4.9 billion ] effect on free cash flow generation. Then we have ForEx and derivative effect, which account for more than EUR 5 billion. And we have a net reduction on net debt because of the 345 million shares sale of EUR 2 billion, which was offset partially by 600 megahertz and the one-off extension for the usage of spectrum fees in Germany. Obviously, that increasing the dividend payments, both for DT and T-Mobile U.S. and the ongoing share buybacks on both sides of the Atlantic.

Gets me to my final statement here when it comes to the leverage ratio. The leverage ratio is extraordinarily good in the second quarter. was 2.51 including leases and 2.11 excluding leases but bear in mind, that will change in the third quarter given that we have closed 2 deals, which we're happy with, Metronet and U.S. Cellular. And obviously, we see an increase in net debt happening in the third quarter. That completes my half year review, and I hand it over to Tim.

Thank you, Christian. On the final page, a quick reminder of our key messages this quarter and our Capital Markets Day targets of around EUR 2.5 adjusted earnings per share in 2027. Now in this quarter, not everybody might be satisfied about the net adds in broadband, Germany and the intense price competition in this market. Most of our competitors are showing shrinking revenues and EBITDA, we show growth, but I'm not happy that these companies are shrinking. This is not good. But despite this observation, we are delivering as a group, a very consistent, reliable growth.

Despite some headwinds here in Germany, we are on track for the full year guidance 2025 and confirm that including our confirmation for the midterm Capital Markets Day targets. We are extending our network leadership on both sides of the Atlantic. And we have announced, for instance, the gigabit mobile network for Germany, which is now up and running.

We delivered a record customer growth and a guidance upgrade for our U.S. operations. We have created exciting new growth opportunities throughout our successful M&A transactions, which we have completed. We are making strong progress with AI power digitization, and we are on track for the resulting efficiency targets. Our leverage is well within the comfort zone and we are not directly affected by the tariff changes, and we are a beneficiary of fiscal measures to stimulate investments on both sides of the Atlantic.

So overall, good outlook for the future. And with this, I hand it over to Hannes.

Thank you, Tim, and thank you, Christian. Next, we have the Q&A part.

[Operator Instructions]

I'll announce your name. And as usual, we would be grateful if you could restrict yourself to 2 questions. And Keep in mind you must mute and unmute yourself. So let's start. First question, I think, is from James Ratzer.

Yes. Thank you. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

I have 2 questions, please. So firstly, I think we see a lot of folks on the German broadband net adds trends. So I'd be keen to drill in a bit more on the comments you mentioned around an MDU portion on retention focus in the overbuilt areas. So if I think about your H2 trends, should we read from this that you're planning to be a bit more price competitive and that broadband net adds can recover? Or do you still expect kind of losses to continue in the second half.

And then for the second question I had was I just love to learn a little bit more about the deal you signed with NVIDIA and in particular, some of the kind of financial impacts around that. Is this going to be an off balance sheet deal? I mean, how much will Deutsche Telekom be investing in this project? And can you help us to think about how to quantify the review upside from this deal over the longer term?

James, let me start with the broadband expectation for the second half of the year. You heard Tim saying that we are focusing on an MDU push that we have selective retention measures because churn has come up and that we're also trying to go for regional pricing aspect. Since we are basically calibrating around the 0 line from negative 7% in the first quarter and negative 20% in the third quarter, I think we're still in the value game.

And we are trying to stabilize the business and doing our best to actually push for an ARPA growth. You've seen that we have some promising results in the retail space on ARPA growth. Whether it's going to be positive, whether it's going to be slightly negative, I think it's hard to predict. So I would say stabilization is the right word for the second half.

There's another discussion, which I'd like to add, Christian, which is the initiatives from the Minister of Digitization that they will easen with the new policy, the access to the [ netsinfo ], so the in-house cabling. And our strong position is on this one. The one who is building it is giving access to this network to all players. So once build it, everybody can access it. And the one who is first is the one who is owning it than rather having overbuilt in the last mile here.

So there is a political consultation going on now with the Bundesnetzagentur and our position is very clear. This would definitely help that we haven't kind of unprotected access for our services in every MDU as well. So this is the regulatory framework, which is helping us hopefully, to get more lines into the MDUs.

Your second question, look, Deutsche Telekom is already invested through our venture capital arm, DTCP, in data centers. And by the way, we own them. It's not that we have only minority shareholdings here. Mindcubes and GreenScale are 2 data center providers who have infrastructure.

On top of that, Deutsche Telekom and its system is running data centers on its own. And we are now thinking about how we can bundle these activities going forward. And we see an unbelievable high pull from governmental and from industrial services for sovereign cloud architecture here. So how is the investment now looking?

Our part is going to be to invest into the infrastructure, data center infrastructure, and we have opportunities to double down on them where we have allowances already in a very short time window. On top of that, we have NVIDIA with their GPU commitment, 10,000 graphic cards, which they are providing to our partnership here. This is an investment coming from their angle.

Interesting wise, the so-called AI Gigafactory, which is the big European initiative. This is something where Europe-wide RFQ is in place. But we don't want to wait until this is provided or accomplished. We're going to start in the first quarter next year by deploying the NVIDIA chips already in data center infrastructure so that the first customers can use and test these capabilities so that we are before the wave in this regard. And this is a participation then from NVIDIA and us in existing infrastructure, which is already available and fitting to the GPU requirements. The most likely scenario, by the way, for the AI gigabit factory is an off-balance sheet investment.

Okay. Thanks, Tim. Thanks, Christian. And with that, we move on to Robert at Deutsche Bank, please.

I wonder if you don't mind taking yourselves back a couple of months, the whole section, U.S. 899 taxing but then a major cash tax positive from bonus depreciation. M&A approvals have been received, but the expense of at least headline DEI objectives. Tim, you've always been a great fan of the U.S. Has your view changed at all from any of this?

And secondly, I heard Christian on leverage moving up in Q3 versus the low levels of Q2, but note the U.S. M&A and more within the balance sheet guidance. One year almost since the CMD, are you getting closer to deploying any of that more than $15 billion of balance sheet firepower or still a bit early to be thinking about that?

First of all, Robert, let me comment on both sides of the Atlantic. First of all, we highly appreciate what has happened in the U.S., especially the bonus depreciation, which gives us a lot of cash tax relief. And you heard Peter talking about the EUR 1.5 billion, which they're going to expect in 2026. Internally, we have been always that the retaliation tax, as we call it, the US899 would actually come into effect because we don't see a lot of support for the digital service tax here in the European environment.

So we're seeing benefits on this one. But I think we should also bear in mind that we have cash benefits in the German environment because we have the accelerated depreciation of 30% in the German environment. And we have the corporate income tax reduction starting from '28 onwards by 1 percentage every year. Let me dwell on the accelerated depreciation. There's a second factor to this. So the total effect, which we expect in between '26 and '28 is roughly EUR 500 million. And the reason being is that you can only deduct or depreciate 3x of the linear depreciation value.

So if you have infrastructure, which is depreciated over 20 or 30 years, obviously, you cannot depreciate 30% in a given year, it's only 15% or 10%. But still, the benefit is over the course of '26 to '28, roughly EUR 28 billion. On leverage, look, my expectation is that we will end the year very close to the target we've given ourselves. Obviously, there's a lot of wiggle room, especially the dollar, which was a great support when it comes to leverage in the second quarter. And that does include the, let's say, the 2 acquisitions of Metronet and you see. But how we basically will deal with the EUR 15 billion is still too early to tell because we have to take a look what's needed in order to support the business midterm. So if we have something which we can call out, we will do it, but I don't want to speculate on this one.

Okay. So with that, thanks, Robert. We move on to Akhil at JPMorgan, please.

I've got 2. Firstly, if I could go back to the comments around the German broadband market. And maybe if I can ask this a little bit differently. If we look at the top 4 operators across the markets, yourselves, Vodafone, Telefonica and one-on-one aggregated, you lost about 100,000 customers in broadband this quarter, which is quite a step change from the prior quarter. So it feels like something has changed amongst the market. So obviously, yes, competition, but even aggregated, you've lost a much higher number of customers than before.

So given the work you're doing, looking at segmentation, can you maybe help us understand what you think that is? Is that purely all net or is it something else? And if it's all net, is there some color you can give us on exactly what's going in the mix so we can better understand that and better gauge how we should think about it going forward?

And then the second one is a much bigger pitch up a question on the U.S. Tim, you mentioned the Lumos and Metronet deals that have now closed, which is obviously nice to see. Over the interim period, we've obviously seen your U.S. peers also scale up their ambitions in the U.S. fiber market.

So in that context, I'd love to understand how you think about the opportunity for growth there. Do you think there is an opportunity to go bigger? And if there is, can you really do that organically? Or do you still think -- do you think there could be an opportunity for more M&A?

Thank you for the question. Look, the broadband market in Germany is largely saturated. And the overall growth is very slow. In this environment, we are seeing the impact of overbuilders, which is no longer overcompensated from our sites by winds, which began from Vodafone churn. Vodafone is very aggressive on pricing to keep their customers in their loop. I even don't understand how they can afford this subsidization which they're doing on Check24, for instance, have a look on this one. But they're trying to do everything to keep that churn low.

Now therefore, the market is -- it's so slow that we are not able to overcompensate the churn, which we are seeing on the altnets. The altnets themselves are not focusing on homes passed anymore. They are very much focusing on homes connected in this environment. So their build-out rate has slowed down, but the efforts to make promotional offers for homes connected has gone up.

In this environment, we were trying to focus on value, and we have reduced our promos at the beginning of the year. For instance, we went from 6 months to 3 months on the discounts. And this is one of the reasons why -- how we can explain the sequential slowdown, which we had in this quarter.

So we are staying, and we said that again, we want to focus on the value of this industry because it doesn't make sense on the one side to build very costly and expensive fiber infrastructure, and you are aware that our fiber infrastructure in Germany is much more expensive than it is in other markets. And we want to keep the ARPA on a level which is amortizing this infrastructure.

Nevertheless, we see that some players are focused on contribution to margin in this environment. Now do I like it? No. Do I hope that even the other players do their economics well? Yes, I hope, but I don't -- can't speak for them. But what we want to do is we stay on our focus on building the infrastructure, 2.5 million annually. We are focusing on, let's say, bringing the customers into the fiber infrastructure by 1 million in 2027 and 0.5 million last year. And that what we're going to do is to try to focus as well to grow the ARPA in this environment, which is a little bit, let's say, possible I would say.

So it's a long-term value play, which we are trying to fight. But what you can see is this is not at least supporting the volume growth at that point in time. So we have to make a watch out. We see where the market is going. But you see the consequence of our value strategy, at least in this quarter, and we will observe the situation going forward.

I can do the U.S. market, sorry. Look, as we said before, we don't look at fixed wireless convergence as an end in itself, but as one of our numbers of ways to increase customer attachment. That said, let's say, we like the broadband space, which is a combination of fixed wireless access, which continues to be a fellow capacity business as well as investing in fiber where we like the economics and where we are just getting started.

And by the way, the economics of the fiber market in the U.S. is much more attractive than in most of the European markets. And with Lumos and Metronet approvals, we have now a much stronger basis to prove the success here. We are already a scale player in broadband, looking at our more than 7 million existing fixed wireless access customers and our 12 million target by 2023, 30. And we have even fellow capacity, which is helping us to extend it to more homes. About half of the U.S. homes where we're going to deploy fixed wireless access or high-speed Internet as we call it.

Plus, we extend to get to 12 million to 15 million homes passed with our Lumos and Metronet activities. So I would say we have a good hand. We are very clean in the way how we're doing. We are an altnet in a kind of way in the U.S. market. And we remain open for clean incremental fiber opportunities in the U.S. market. But they have to be right, and they have to fit from an economic perspective, they have to fit into our footprint, and they have to come at the right price. So we are not somewhat under super pressure here. We keep on going in this direction, and we have built the foundation.

Great. With that, we move on to Josh Mills at Exane BNP Paribas, please.

Hopefully, you can hear me. Two for me and one of them would be on the broadband trends in Germany again. I'd just like to pick up on Tim's comment there about the German broadband market being saturated. And I'd be interested to know whether you're seeing any increase in overall broadband demand or penetration in the areas that you're rolling out fiber to the home to, i.e., could this be a tool to grow the size of the overall market and perhaps offer a release valve for some of the competitive intensity in the market we're seeing today if everybody can grow? Or do you see that in areas where you roll out fiber, there isn't really much of an impact on overall broadband demand?

And then secondly, on the AI investments that you flagged earlier in the presentation, you're one of the few, if not the only European telcos with the scale and the free cash flow today to seriously participate in these kind of AI investments. I would be interested to hear whether you will be in conversations with other European telcos and how you can partner with them, offer them your services or perhaps you sell them some of your services directly and if there's that option in the future as well.

Good questions. By the way, to the first one, look, we are differentiating between broadband and fiber to the home. And I can tell you one thing. I'm happy with the take-up rates on FTTH guys. We had 137,000 net adds on the FTTH side in the German market. And people like the product, like the service, could be better, but we see a constant higher demand for fiber. So therefore, where we deploy it, we find ways even to sell it to our customer base.

Is this already satisfying? No, we want to do more, and we want to utilize our factory in a better way. But we are on a good track in this regard. The numbers not being able to overcompensate the classical line losses, and they are mainly driven by altnet. These are areas where we haven't built out where the altnets are building there fiber infrastructure. So, answer? FTTH is the answer going forward.

Second question, AI investments. And I can tell you, for me, for the company, AI is going to be the game changer for the whole company. And I'm thinking about how is this company looking in 10 years, driven by AI by agent and even by super intelligence is at one point in time, which is -- and the agent models are already being used in our companies. I talked about one example earlier, which is in the network.

The cyber and the anomaly detection in our network is handled by AI and the agent is already taking actions to fix things in a much faster than humans can do. We still have a human interface in between because we do not want to hand over these activities already to a machine. But prospectively, we're going to, let's say, change entirely the setup for the network architecture and the network handling going forward, one example.

I see huge benefits on the customer service and the sales organization. To be honest, it's not about only about efficiency. It is as well about, let's say, the personalization of services. To be honest, I'm very happy what these guys are doing. And the cost savings, which we are seeing are in the 30s. I see super big impact coming with regard to contextual marketing, bundling the data of our company with data from the outside and the social media and other sources, which gives us more opportunities for better tailored offers.

And I can go on and on. We recently saw the first models where we are using AI agents for internal service like internal audit, where the agents already trying to find anomalies with regard to compliance, supervision and other things. So there are a lot of good examples. It will change every process in this company. Every product, every process has to apply AI. And that is, let's say, the discussion we're having.

Now we have to cross the river by filling the stones. This is definitely the way going forward. But there will be audacious targets, which we should define for our organization that they understand where we are aiming for. And that is the discussion which I have with my fellow Board colleagues here right now. And to be honest, I believe there's much more opportunity in the organization with regard to efficiency and other targets than what we have laid out yet. But to be honest, I do not want to commit to something I don't know yet. But I'm -- and we are very excited about the opportunity here.

Can I chime in on the broadband? Just quickly, Josh. I would say the growth is coming 1/3 from volume. So if you assume there's 200,000 to 250,000 volume growth in the German market and 2/3 have to come from ARPA given the size of broadband customers which we have, that is kind of the rule of thumb, how I would envision the growth in the broadband market.

Great. Okay. Next, we have Polo at UBS, please.

I have 2. The first one is about the EUR 500 billion German infrastructure fund. So what do you think the impact will be in terms of the German market? And could Deutsche Telekom be a beneficiary? Second question is really just a follow-up in terms of the EU AI Gigafactory opportunity. You mentioned how it could be an off-balance sheet venture, but could you clarify what role Deutsche Telekom would have? And what is the business model for Deutsche Telekom?

Look, the EUR 500 billion German infrastructure fund is a big opportunity for Deutsche Telekom. And by the way, you see that already. If you look to T-Systems and the double-digit growth on the digitization efforts, you see that there is an increased demand from public spendings into this direction. Germany has to digitize and money is going into this direction. And we have multiple opportunities, which we consider in this regard. On top of that, infrastructure is always, I don't see that there is additional funding going into subsidization for fiber. At least the market is already hot. The construction capabilities are limited.

So if you put a lot of money on top of that, you would only increase the prices, but you will not increase the output of it. So therefore, this is a tricky undertaking. So we are not lobbying for getting significantly higher subsidization for the fiber build-out, we are looking more for infrastructure support on the data center side and on the gigabit side in this regard.

Now I was with the Chancellor and others. There has been this huge EUR 630 billion investment commitment from German industries into Germany for the future. Yes, a lot of that is already existing or committed CapEx, but there is additional CapEx as well on this one. And for every infrastructure, which has been built you need connectivity, you need a data centers, you need software and therefore, we see from the political side and from the business side, we see upside on the German market on the software and the digitization perspective.

And then we have these areas of health and on defense, where we see additional money going into as well. I just had a discussion with the -- an hour ago with the CEO of Rheinmetall who is -- and we discussed as well about opportunities here. So to me, without being now in the position to say, okay, there's EUR 50 million going in this one and this one, there must be something in for the German telecommunication providers for the companies who are providing software.

And on top of that, I can tell you, after all this tariff discussions, you know there is a shock in Europe with regard to severity -- a huge pull on the sovereignty discussion. All data centers are all fully deployed. You know that from other companies you're covering, there's no capacity in the market there. And that is what we are using these days. Expanding our capacity on the data center side, which brings me to your second question. And you should always differentiate.

We have a 2-step approach. The first step approach is now the approach of filling data center with GPUs that the companies can already test it and governmental services. So we are not waiting until the so-called gigafactory opportunity is decided.

To be honest, I don't like the word gigafactory too much because it will not be that somebody is building a gigabit factory. It will come with the utilization. It will come on demand. So it might grow into a gigabit factory, but it will not be that all the investments will be put into the countryside and then we're waiting for customers, it will grow into this gigabit factory over time, and we have applied for that.

Our concept today is that we have a partnership with the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. That is where we are -- where our headquarters is sitting.

We are trying to partner as well with RWE, not finally decided on sites, former coal sites or nuclear power plant sites where we have water and power supply and access to things where approvals have been given in the past where we can implement the data center infrastructure.

And on top of that, without saying too much here, we have a partnership with Brookfield, a very successful one, as you know, which is our tower company. And these guys are very, very committed and interested to build this gigabit factory with us so that we have a very strong partner on the co-investment side.

So we have a strong a very strong group of people together. There is competition, no question about it. But at least we have a way forward. And we have already nucleus with Mindcubes and GreenScale and with experience in the group, which we can use now for the planning and the deployment of it.

Okay. Great. So now we move on to Carl at Citi, please.

Two questions from me, please. Firstly, slightly just following up on Polo's but from a more short-term basis, I suppose. You're talking about the large-scale kind of public sector opportunities. For the last few quarters, we've obviously seen IT business phasing kind of drag. So any forward visibility on timing of return of government spend but more kind of in the next few quarters rather than the longer-term opportunity?

And secondly, just on the customer contracts IFRS 15 adjustment. I wanted to ask when was the court ruling made in relation to the customer contract accounting one-off? And when did you understand the extent of the impact it would have on revenue and EBITDA. I guess I'm trying to understand why the bulk of the impact is in this quarter and whether it might have been possible to sign post the issue ahead of today.

Let me start on the IT situation. So first of all, we're seeing a stronger demand for IT projects relative to telco projects. And that naturally supports T-Systems more than it does support the German segment. Second one is, I think this -- to a large degree, the budget for this year wasn't been signed. And therefore, the -- I would say, the projects were hold back. What we're seeing right now is the fastest demand is coming from federal and has to trickle down into the federal state budgets, and that will take some time. So this is why T-Systems is -- since they're focusing on the very large customers, is more in favor of grabbing that opportunity at least sooner than the German business is doing. And this is why we see this different, let's say, speeds between T-Systems and the German business when it comes to the IT space. The second question on IFRS accounting, you have the number? Yes.

Yes, This was a ruling that was actually a court ruling in -- against a competitor of ours, Vodafone. -- we had to evaluate this decision and also take a view on when we would adjust our contracts because that's something that takes time. Now I would also say while it is a headline hit to EBITDA this quarter, as we have clearly communicated is noncash, it will come back. So therefore, we did not feel it was, let's say, big enough to create this, let's say, potentially unusual levels of disclosure. Okay. With that, we go on to Ottavio at Bernstein.

A couple of questions. The first one is going back on the German broadband. During the call, almost used altnets and overbuilders as synonym. But my question is, how big is the -- really the overbuild between you and the altnets in Germany? In the U.K., it's relatively low around 10%. So I was wondering what's the rate in Germany.

And also, you mentioned that you expect the run rate on connection to reach 1 million all around 2027. So the question is there, it's all due to the fact that you're running point to multipoint and that's difficult for you to build a drop into the MDUs or there is also an issue with demand.

The second one is for -- is pretty straightforward. It's for Christian, and this is on the guidance provided for the progression on EBITDA growth for the rest of the year. You mentioned about the third quarter that will be impacted by a number of issues. But then you guided for fourth quarter to go back to the run rate. So my question is, what's the run rate? Is the one we've seen in H1, hovering around 2%? Or is the run rate is what you guided for the midterm between 2.5% and 3%?

Yes. Look, the first thing is you're totally right. we have to differentiate between altnets and overbuilders. And to give you a quick answer, the amount of overbuild is very, very small. It is a single-digit number. That is, let's say, where we are in Germany. And by the way, it's not my number. It's the public stated number from the Bundesnetzagentur which was recently published.

And -- and the Bundesnetzagentur stated as well that there is no problem with overbuilding in Germany so that they have to interfere or regulate something. This is not public. And by the way, I think this is totally correct and it's reflecting as well how we are looking on the market.

Now there are, due to the size of this country, areas where Deutsche is not building. We always have customers in every kind of village of this country. But there are areas where we are not building. This is a market where the altnets are mainly gaining their customer growth today. Due to the fact that they are going away from homes path to very much homes connected, they are now very much pushing to migrate our customers onto their fiber infrastructure.

On top of that, the estimation of BUGLAS and some other BREKO and other institutes were that the growth of the whole market is slowing down as well, including the fiber build-out. I said -- I told you about the numbers in my speech.

We are trying to partner in all the regions with all, let's say, regional players where these audits are being built, being it Eve Tel, being it willhelm.tel, being it [indiscernible] being [indiscernible] all these players to partner with this alternative networks that our customers can use the telecom services based on a dark fiber access, which we gain from these local players.

So this is working nicely. We have more than 43 partnerships already today. Some of them don't want dark fiber. But in these areas, we might then consider overbuild. But that is only a fraction of where we are seeing. So we are trying to optimize the CapEx spend in our footprint and concentrating on the areas where nobody is building today.

So this is a little bit. The problem which we have for the broadband, and I want to reiterate that is the migration from copper or cable, by the way, cable is copper as well into fiber should get -- should increase. It has to be higher. The run rate is still too slow. We have to fill the fiber pipes. And then over time, we will grow our net adds as well again.

Okay. So Ottavio, to your second question, if I'm talking about run rate, I'm talking about the 2%, which we have seen in the first half. And therefore, it's -- since there's a structural benefit since the wage agreement is rolling over, there's a structural benefit in Q4, and this is why we're saying above. Don't nail me to the table whether it's going to be 2.5%, 2.2% or 2.7% because I think this is -- I'm clearly not in the position to predict this, but we expect something which is above 2% for the fourth quarter.

Okay. Thanks, Chris, and thanks, Tim. With that, we move on to Steve at Redburn, please.

Yes. Thanks, just a couple, please. Just first on tax. And apologies, Christian, I didn't follow all the very useful information that you gave on tax about half an hour ago. Just TMS has obviously given a fairly clear steer what the impact of bonus depreciation will be on them. Can you just clarify back at the Capital Markets Day, I think you said there'd be EUR 0.5 billion drag on the ex TMS cash flows between 23% and 27% in your guidance. Is that still the case? Or has that improved given the changes we've seen in the German tax legislation?

And then just on your T-Mobile stake, Tim, I think you gave a very clear steer as well at CMD last year, you want to get your stake up into the kind of mid high 50s. We've seen SoftBank selling overnight, another 3 million other 3% sorry or so sorry, 30 million shares, if my math's right. Maybe just update us on your sort of thoughts on your -- the trajectory of your stake in TMS and maybe why you weren't interested in buying that stake and how we think about the moving parts of the TMS shareholding going forward, that would be very helpful.

So let me repeat on the tax equation. So we have basically 2 tax benefits, which affect the free cash flow. The one is the accelerated depreciation, which is, you can depreciate up to 30% in the first year if it's -- and it's limited to 3x the linear depreciation in Germany. So that effect and then you have corporate income tax benefits, which are starting in '28. So you only see the first effect of corporate income tax at the end of '28, which is a little one.

If you add them all up, it's roughly EUR 500 million, close to EUR 500 million free cash flow benefit but we haven't discussed how we're going to use that benefit. So that is a structural improvement relative to what we discussed at the CMD.

Okay. On the T-Mobile stake, look, from our shareholding, we are on the right trajectory. You saw the 52% where we are today. To be honest, nothing new with regards to the SoftBank sale here. We were very transparent on that one that we know that they are going to reduce their shareholding within the company because Masa Son and SoftBank Group is now aiming for this big investment in the Giga factories in the U.S. and on Stargate and the like and their investments probably as well in Open AI. So therefore, we were aware of it then. Most of their shares were anyhow delta hedged.

So therefore, we knew that they would not have -- they create a huge overhang. I see a positive impact from that, guys, because the free float is going up, and that is something -- which is -- sorry yes.

So therefore, we see a benefit coming from that SoftBank is selling their shares in DT and as well in their U.S. foothold here. So on that one, to be honest, I was a little bit unhappy that we got this announcement on Bloomberg this morning because this has created some uncertainty around it. But for us, this was nothing new. I have to excuse for this coincidence on the announcement here. But for us, the development is nothing new. It's nothing where we see a downside. I even see for the DT shares an upside due to the higher free float, which we're going to see on our stock here.

And Steve, to your question, why did we not pick up shares from SoftBank. We are -- as you know, we are currently acting as a seller in the market and therefore, being a seller and a buyer at the same time would be inappropriate, let's say, that way. So because we have the ongoing program.

So with that, we move on to Paul Sidney at Berenberg, please.

I just had 2 on the German market. If we take a step back and look at your German business as a whole, there are so many subscriber KPIs that we obsess about every quarter. You obviously disclose very detailed granular revenue, service revenue growth trends and give profitability metrics and ultimately, free cash flow on a quarterly basis.

But I just wondered internally, -- how will you judge and monitor the success of the German business, both in the short term and the long term? And then just secondly, a very general question about the potential for consolidation in the German market. I fully appreciate that mega consolidation among the listed operators may be difficult, but there's obviously a lot of private companies out there, infrastructure, et cetera. I just wondered if you see any prospects for any future consolidation to improve the value creation potential of the German market.

Okay. So on the -- on your question, short and long term, I think the crucial metric on the broadband side is how many fiber net adds do you have? How many new customers are you adding to your network because that shows the momentum. And this is what we have given ourselves an ambitious target to have 1 million by the year '27. And on mobile, I think it's clearly whether we're gaining market share, which we are continuously doing and we're doing this over the volume strategy. You see that our performance has been consistently 250 million to 300 million, despite the last quarter because of this large corporate account.

But we expect this to work out fine. What I said earlier on, especially in the retail consumer market, we've seen a pickup of the net adds in the second quarter relative to the first quarter. This is due to next Magenta 4.0. So this is a product which has picked up very nicely in the market. So that would be my 2 KPIs. But I hand it over to Tim. He's probably more creative than I am in adding some additional ones.

No, no, you are very creative. So therefore, you know the first one, by the way, for me, the most important on the German business is that our customer base is very happy, and we have the highest Net Promoter Score and you know that we have a stable base. And we develop our customers into the next generation with new services and like mobile, fixed line convergence, TV and other services that they are staying with us forever. It's a relation for life. And that is something that we want. We have a great customer base, and that is where even our value sits.

The second thing, as Christian said, is the fiber deployment and, let's say, the monetization of these investments. And I can tell you one thing. If this market is only looking on contribution to margin. Nobody will be able to afford the investments which are needed to build the fiber infrastructure. And I can tell you, we are not sleeping on our tree. We do our math -- we have our business case. We have our net present value. We have a clear understanding about, let's say, the cost and the cost for the deployment.

And I would expect that investors in the altnets or investors at Vodafone into the densification of the network, they do the same math. So it is our duty. It is our duty for all players that we are bringing up the value of this market. Otherwise, we would all end with headaches. And that is what we are trying to do by increasing the ARPA, by increasing prices, that is by doing our homework on trying massively to reduce the deployment cost for the homes passed infrastructure. This is why we make the recommendation that we only build the last mile once than rather building it multiple, which is only creating cost.

I'm trying to optimize the value of this infrastructure, which is heavily challenged in this environment. And on top of that, we are lobbying intensively and we have great support from the Minister of Digital Services here in Germany with regard to reducing bureaucracy, reducing the approval costs and the like that the whole ecosystem is coming into a fruitful development.

I'm not happy, to be very clear, I'm not happy to see the numbers of shrinking EBITDA and shrinking service revenues of Vodafone, Telefonica, [indiscernible]73:23 in today. This is not healthy for no one. So therefore, we all have the duty on this one, and I see even duty on my side. And therefore, let's focus on differentiation, let's focus on quality, let's focus on the service proposition and our brand. This is, let's say, our value play, which we are trying to play here. But I can tell you, in this environment, it's not an easy one at that point in time. And I understand the headaches, which some of the investors had today, I have the same one. But nevertheless, this is the duty which we have as investors.

Yes, there was the question whether there's scope for consolidation to improve the market? And I guess, Paul, you were not referring to mobile market consolidation. You were more referring to potential fixed line market consolidation. Now German fixed line market is very fragmented. There's many small players out there that, in principle, are probably unsustainable, but at the same time, that doesn't make consolidation, relevant consolidation easy to do.

And there are some, of course, early steps towards consolidation in the industry. We are also happy to explore certain forms of collaboration, mainly with focus on passive infrastructure. And we are open-minded. The German antitrust regime, however, is quite restrictive. So we would need to be creative and have some openings there. And of course, it's not our obligation or job to bail out failing overbuilders.

Again, good question. Look, I'd like to add, if there is an opportunity at reasonable prices, Christian and myself, we are willing to test the water in this regard to see whether the political environment is reflecting the situation of too many players in one point here and whether this is helping the economics of the whole industry. So we are willing to test it, but there is no opportunity at that point in time.

Good. And I think -- my understanding last question for this call is from David at Bank of America.

A couple of questions, Christian. I hope you don't mind, I'm going to push you a little bit more on I believe it was Robert's question on the balance sheet. You have had unexpected fiscal benefits this year from the bonus tax depreciation in the U.S. and also some optimism, I think, in Germany. You have now switched to full participation in the U.S. buyback. You've committed EUR 2 billion of buyback until this year-end, but nothing thereafter. And we are expecting you to probably update on your dividend alongside the Q3s.

Why would you not extend the buyback? And I also referred to a share price at EUR 30 right now, which I'm sure isn't the level you guys would like to go on holiday with? And then if you don't mind, a second question, and I'm sorry about this, German broadband. But -- and I'm very hesitant to say this, given your recent comments, Tim, about BT as an investment, but it does sound an awful lot like BT.

We have a lot of altnets. We have increasing line loss. The altnets' focusing on connectivity instead of build, and it's starting to impact the market. Now one of the remedies that BT took was to accelerate their fiber build. Now a lot of these pressures have manifested since you set your fiber target at the CMD of 2.5 million lines. What is the potential that you guys have to raise that target, build faster and slow the line loss? So the 2 questions.

Okay. So first of all, on the balance sheet. Look, we have been very transparent around the EUR 500 million over the course of the 3 years and the peak is actually in 2017. And to be honest, the answer to that is we haven't discussed it how we're going to use the proceeds. But as I said to James, it's a structural benefit relative to our October communication.

In the U.S., I can only basically repeat what Peter was indicating as a potential that they were going for faster integration of [ UScellular ] which obviously brings in faster run rate synergies. So they have something it had at least they can discuss, but I'm not sure whether they have taken that final discussion.

On the share buyback, on the prolongation, David, I think it's premature to discuss it right now. You know we have kind of a rhythm and the rhythm is Q3 where we usually talk about the dividend expectation for next year and/or let me communicate in a very vague form a potential additional share buyback, which we haven't decided yet. But I think I would wait until we have the November call, and then you should expect an answer from us how we want to proceed with the DT share buyback going forward and the dividend.

I like comparison with BT. So that is hopefully waking up everybody here in my organization. So therefore -- so with this comment, I'll leave it. So I can only lose by commenting something on this one. But to be honest, we are thinking all parts. And we have all hands on deck on the question about how can we generate the value play here on this side.

Now there's one observation. I believe that the altnets, they are in a late blossom at that point in time because it's not about only homes connected and utilizing the infrastructure they have, they even have to grab new land, and they have to even build more.

What we see and what we hear, this is not taking place because investors are not willing to invest even or double down in this business model with these guys because they see that independent from the net adds the economics of this market is not working. So therefore, I'm not so afraid about the future and the way forward. I have to tackle now with my short-term challenges here and with the homes connected. But I do not see that the altnets or others are doubling down and suddenly making more. It is more than net adds. It is the economics of the whole business case, which is very challenged in this environment if the ARPUs are not going up.

The second thing is, in this environment, we won't stop. So we go for the 2.5 million. And to be honest, we do not want to increase construction costs and all of this at that point in time. It's already very complex to build 2.5 million households at that point in time. So we do not have now plans or capacity to double down. So this is just the reality. Maybe that might be relaxed over time. But at that point in time, it's not possible.

The third one is we are intensively discussing new partnerships in Germany. And I can promise you this quarter, you will see a big partnership coming. I cannot talk about that one today, but we have already handshaked on something here. So that we are not trying, let's say, to build the capacity always with our own, but to find new partners who are offering their capacities to us so that our telecom signal, as we always call it, that this is, let's say, going to a bigger footprint as well.

So this is helping the market as well, the utilization of the existing infrastructure. So partnerships is another model going forward. And I can tell you, I do not want to heat up the market with my customers. So we will do everything that the altnets are not eating my cake. And that is why we launched the unbreakable proposition of 500 megabit per second. It might be an interim technology, but I can tell you it will be a convincing one. Most of the customers I'm meeting in these areas, they're telling me one thing. I'm with telecom forever. We like telecom very much, great service. I don't want to go away from you guys. If you have an alternative, we would always stay with you guys. So I have to build a bridge for these customers. And the new proposition with [indiscernible] is definitely an answer on this one. And that is a much more reasonable one than now in this difficult economic environment, double down on the investments.