Net  profit in the second quarter of 2013 had increased 10 percent on the same quarter a year ago, rising to 530 million euros ($706 million), Deutsche Telekom said in an earnings report released August 8.

Total revenues grew 5.4 percent to 15.1 billion euros, the German telecom giant said.

Quarterly revenues were boosted by the earnings of US mobile provider MetroPCS in which Deutsche Telekom had acquired a stake of 75 percent in May and added about 688,000 US customers to its client base.

Noting that Deutsche Telekom was winning ‘droves' of customers on both sides of the Atlantic, Chief Executive Rene Obermann said in the report: “We are in the middle of a massive turnaround in the US, … and prepared to spend more on high-value growth than previously planned.”

Obermann also said that the company was aiming to add another 500,000 to 700,000 customers in the second half of 2013 at its US division. 

Therefore, 2013 earnings would be lower than earlier estimated, now expected to come in at 17.5 billion euros for the full year rather than the 18.4 billion euros originally forecast.

In the second quarter, Deutsche Telekom also increased its spending on technical infrastructure by 35 percent. The size of its US mobile network was increased, now covering 157 million people with LTE high-speed services, compared with an originally planned 100 million for 2013.

uhe/ipj (AP, dpa, Reuters)