Deutsche Telekom sees 3Q profit soar

The Bonn-based telecommunications company, Europe's biggest, said it earned 895 million euros ($1.2 billion) in the July-September period, more than tripling the 256 million euros it reported a year earlier.

Sales slipped by 1.5 percent to just under 15.5 billion euros ($20 billion) from last year's 15.7 billion euros.

Deutsche Telekom said it was on track to meet its goals for the full year, including a pretax profit of 19.3 billion euros ($25 billion), on a par with 2007. It said its cost-savings program generated 500 million euros ($647 million) in savings in the third quarter.

The company did not provide a 2009 forecast, saying its supervisory board, the U.S. equivalent of a board of directors, had not yet approved financial planning for next year.

Chief Executive Rene Obermann said the company was "well positioned in financial terms, our balance sheet ratios are good, and our short and medium-term funding is on a broad and solid footing."

Obermann said that the financial market crisis "has so far not affected Deutsche Telekom's operations, and of course I hope things will stay that way."

"The past has shown that the telecommunications sector tends to be relatively resilient to economic developments compared with other sectors," Obermann said.

Despite his optimism, shares of Telekom closed 3.6 percent at 11.05 euros ($14.06) in Frankfurt.

Telekom said sales of the new Apple iPhone helped drive subscriber growth in Germany, but that didn't prevent sales from slipping in its home market.