The ratings on Germany's largest telecommunications services provider Deutsche Telekom AG (DT) primarily reflect the group's solid business position in several markets. They also reflect the continued uptake of broadband in Germany amid significant challenges in DT's core domestic fixed-line business and an increasingly competitive German mobile market. Growth in operational cash flows from mobile telephony, including the group's U.S. subsidiary T-Mobile USA Inc. and European operations outside Germany, provide support for the ratings. The ratings are based on Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' expectation that DT's management will endeavor to maintain a disciplined financial policy, particularly as its investment in network and spectrum in the U.S. and fiber network in Germany remains high, and given high restructuring costs that
