A very good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome from Bonn. It's nice that you're joining us for today's session. We will be presenting the results for the first half year today. We are doing this in a very favorable environment. When I look at the share price today, it stands at more than EUR 18.14, which is the kind of level that we saw some 20 years ago last time, which is a nice start to the day. We are very pleased to see you here today. We figured it might be a good idea to no longer use a conference call, to actually use a video as well. We hope that you will also like it, and maybe it even helps you to understand what we are saying even better. Of course, we will have the Q&A session as usual.
You did get some instructions on that in the run-up to today's call. Some things are a bit new today, but our speakers are still the same. First of all, Christian Illek, the CFO, and our CEO, Tim Höttges, who will now give his statement to kick things off. A very good morning from my side as well. Ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome to our conference call at Deutsche Telekom. I will be talking about the excellent financial results from the first half year. First of all, let me say a few words about the catastrophic flooding that hit the region just a few weeks ago. Ever since then, we've given our all to help the people affected. Whenever disaster strikes, Telekom really plays a major role, and we are very committed to filling this role successfully. The mobile network was our first priority.
We acted immediately. One reason was because around 300 of our cell sites were down, and we had to act quickly. We had to reconnect them before long. Our technicians had the entire mobile network back up and running by the 23rd of July, as a matter of fact, restoring communication for people in need. We are also using overlay structures, so we even stepped-up capacities because a lot of fixed network telephony goes through the mobile network. Since then, the mobile network has been stable, but the people on the ground need more than working networks. They need devices and access to the power grid. Which is why we stepped in immediately again. In the direct aftermath of the flooding, our volunteers handed out 4,900 robust mobile phones, 5,000 power banks, and 2,500 quick start packages across the regions affected. That was free of charge.
With many places impossible to access by car, colleagues from Telekom service took backpacks and set out on foot through the towns and villages to reach people. We are still out and about in the affected areas in order to rebuild infrastructure and to support those who need help. Telekom is here to help. While we were able to fix the mobile network quickly, parts of the fixed network will take far longer because the devastation is simply too great. Roads and bridges were carried away, our cables, which are mostly laid along roads or under bridges, went with them. We have a couple of photos here to give you an idea of the scale of the damage, including to our infrastructure. The cables that you can see here usually are 1.20 meters below, say, a river or a street.
This gives you an idea of the power of these floods. Restoring lines to all households, repairing cables, street cabinets, and control centers will take us many months. In the meantime, we are rolling out temporary solutions to help plug the gap, and we are doing this in close cooperation with aid organizations, above all, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief. I must say, I think it is quite impressive, in fact, overwhelming, what the Federal Agency for Technical Relief and other organizations are doing here. So far, we've been able to reinstate service to two-thirds of the affected fixed network infrastructure. That means around 75,000 households have been reconnected thanks to emergency measures and the nationwide support of countless technicians. For instance, our technical subsidiaries in Rheinland-Pfalz have now also stepped up their efforts to rebuild the region.
For the remaining 30,000 or so customers still with no fixed network, the sheer scale of the devastation is hampering our efforts to rebuild. We are mobilizing more resources in technical and service. We have 500 colleagues out there, 1,500 specialists on the ground, 500 back-office colleagues, and 130-strong service team staffing a special dedicated hotline. There are hundreds more volunteers helping with the cleanup, 2,000 volunteers collecting donations as part of Sat.1, being a German broadcaster, telethon. Everyone supporting where they can to help the people affected by the flooding. Actually, a lot of Telekom employees also live in the flood-hit regions themselves, which means that they are personally affected by the events, and we are helping them too, swiftly and with no red tape, with special leave, release from duties and aid payments. We've also offered accommodation to those affected.
I would like to use this opportunity today to say thank you to everyone at Telekom for their tireless dedication and their personal commitment. Deutsche Telekom will continue working flat out and doing what it does best, which is build networks, connect people, drive forward the reconstruction work for as long as it takes. #dabei. We won't stop. That is our motto, and it applies now more than ever. Ladies and gentlemen, now let me talk about the financial results for the first half year. Christian Illek will give you all the details on the figures in a moment. Let me begin with the most important message. Our growth course continues in a very impressive manner, and that goes for business on both sides of the Atlantic. It means that we can once again raise our guidance for the full year.
We are showing here that you can count on Deutsche Telekom. That's proof of it. In a sentence, we might say we have delivered. Net revenue was up by 12.8% year-on-year in the first six months. Let me repeat that, 12.8% year-on-year to EUR 53 billion. In organic terms, growth was 6.9%. I think this is a major achievement. I mean, 6.9% growth in this difficult industry, that really puts us at the very top. Adjusted EBITDA AL increased by 14% in the same period. Organic growth here was 4.6%, with higher earnings across all operating segments. That, to me, is more important than anything else. We are growing across all segments. You can see it on the left-hand side here. The U.S., +4.6%, Germany +3.7%, Europe +4.7%, Group Development +8.1%, T-Systems +1.3%, all of whom are organic growth figures.
Adjusted free cash flow AL is also growing by 44.1% at group level in the first half of the year to EUR 5.4 billion in the first half of the year, which is more than in the full year 2019. Adjusted net profit rose by 29.4% to EUR 3.3 billion in the same period. This positive development is mainly down to two major factors. First of all, the business combination of T-Mobile US and Sprint in the U.S. continues to make excellent progress. In fact, I was in the U.S. last week, and I was able to see for myself what this joint spirit looks like and what it is all about. Adjusted EBITDA AL came in at EUR 11.4 billion. In organic terms, it grew by 4.6%, or EUR 500 million. Secondly, our operations on this side of the Atlantic are also developing very favorably.
Adjusted EBITDA AL grew by 4.5% in organic terms in the first six months. I am particularly pleased to see that all group units are contributing to this trend without exception. In Germany, adjusted EBITDA AL was up organically in the first half by 3.7%. Organic growth in the Europe segment was 4.7%, while adjusted EBITDA AL in the T-Systems business grew by 1.3% in organic terms. At 8.1% organic growth in EBITDA AL was particularly marked in the Group Development segment. These figures are impressive testimony to our transatlantic strengths. Ladies and gentlemen, these trends in our key financials are eclipsing even our own expectations. We now expect the U.S. to contribute higher earnings than forecast.
On this basis, we are now raising our full year guidance for the second time for 2021 as a whole, from previously over EUR 37 billion to over EUR 32.2 billion now. I would now like to address two points which are particularly relevant when it comes to the question of how we addressed our economic challenges. I did praise the company here, but yeah, I just meant to point that out. We are winning new customers all the time, month after month, quarter after quarter, and we must, without fail, earn the trust of our customers that our customers place in Deutsche Telekom by offering them the best products with the best services in the best networks everywhere. Our ambition is to become the leading provider in all areas. It's simple, really.
The success of our business boils down to customers who trust in and are loyal to Deutsche Telekom. Secondly, that's why we continue to invest in the technologies of the future, in building out both next generation 5G mobile technology and fiber to the home. Our networks are how we generate value today and in the future. We need to be the technology leader in these areas, or our customers will abandon us. That's why in 2021, we are once again investing record amounts in our infrastructure, pouring around EUR 18 billion largely into building out our networks worldwide. In the first half year alone, we increased cash CapEx by 22% to EUR 8.6 billion. Ladies and gentlemen, FTTH, or fiber to the home, is synonymous with future-ready fixed network internet. Gigabit-capable fiber optic lines running directly to residential premises will become the arteries of our digital society.
Building this infrastructure is a gigantic undertaking. In our home market of Germany, we are pulling out all the stops and sticking to our long-term target, which is by 2030, a fiber optic line to every one of the 41.5 million households and to every business. We will make a major contribution to achieving this goal, which we've repeated over and over, but the other portion has to come from our competitors. We cannot digitize Germany on our own, much as we would like to. It's true that we've announced ambitious plans this year, 1 million FTTH lines in the next few years for Berlin, another 500,000 each for Hamburg and Munich, plus 3 million lines in rural areas. It's also true that we deliver on our promises. In the first half of the year, we rolled out fiber optic lines to around 340,000 households in Germany, so that's FTTH.
Our goal is still to achieve 1.2 million lines by the end of this year, and we are well on track to achieving this. Looking ahead from 2024, we are set to give a further 2.5 million households the option of an FTTH line from us. We continue to build out our existing fixed network infrastructure as well in Germany and our European subsidiaries, for example, in Poland and Austria. Across Europe today, a total of over 50 million households can get a broadband fixed network line with vectoring, so less than 100 MB, or Supervectoring, which is 250 MB from us. Over 8.8 million households in Germany and in our national companies in Europe can already subscribe to an FTTH line from us with speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second.
In the first half of the year, we installed 1 million fiber to the home lines across our home continent. In terms of mobile business, our 5G networks are leading in Germany and in our national companies in Europe, where they cover 82% of the population. In Germany, we are even further on, with coverage set to reach over 90% by the end of the year. 5G, that is. CHIP Magazine recently bestowed on us the award for the best mobile network in Germany. We were the only provider to achieve a test score of very good. This is precisely our ambition as the leading European telco. We continue to blaze trails in the U.S. mobile industry. Since the end of 2020, we've expanded our U.S. 5G network in the 5.2 GHz band by more than 50% to reach 165 million people.
You can tell that our investments really lead to measurable results. 305 million Americans nationwide can surf the internet via 5G on the basis of the 600 MHz band. Our 5G coverage is now almost double that of AT&T's, and our population coverage is more than quadruple Verizon's, which means that T-Mobile US brings 5G to more people than former heavyweights AT&T and Verizon combined. This network build-out is paying off on both sides of the Atlantic. On our home continent, 328,000 people opted for a fixed network line from Deutsche Telekom in the first half of the year. On top of that, 122,000 new customers signed up for our Magenta TV product bundles. Both figures are up year-on-year.
In mobile business, we added 738,000 new branded contract customers in Europe in the first six months. Customers in the U.S. are also rewarding our network build-out and the outstanding network quality with more people than ever signing up for a contract with T-Mobile US. Postpaid net adds were up by 2.5 million in the first half. Our customer growth is industry leading. CEO Mike Sievert and his team continue to forge ahead with our Un-carrier strategy, and our business combination with Sprint is having the desired effect. We are getting better by the day and are on course to become number one on the extremely important U.S. market, which is a unique opportunity. Are you aware of any other German company with similar prospects in the U.S.? Ladies and gentlemen, one last thing.
Our digital infrastructure forms the backbone of our digital society, and we are very much aware of it. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, it has proved to be stable and resilient in times of crisis, but it can do so much more. For example, we could use our mobile network to warn people about imminent natural disasters. This happens under the buzzword of Cell Broadcast. It works using a text message-like early warning system, which is known as Cell Broadcast, like I said. Digitization can help us to ensure we are best prepared for what may come, but we have to use it properly. For this, we are waiting for a sign or a mandate from policymakers. As network operators, as Deutsche Telekom, we are ready to act. Thank you. With that, I will now hand you over to Christian Illek.
Yeah. Thanks a lot, Tim. From my part, too, a warm welcome to our conference call. I would like to break down my comments into three sections as usual. First, I would like to explain the development of the group's financial results in the second quarter. Secondly, I'll talk about development in the operating segments. Finally, I'll look at the group's liabilities and net profit as well as net debt. Let's start with the second quarter. For the second quarter of Deutsche Telekom, the story remains intact. The group's net revenue increased by 6.8%, as Tim said, and that breaks down into 9.7% growth in the U.S., a EUR 0.2 billion, and 2.2% revenue growth in the U.S. Why am I talking about organic growth, first of all? We look at two factors which were heavily influenced by, first of all, currency exchange rates.
In the second quarter of this year, the dollar was $0.10 weaker than in the second quarter of the prior year. This translates into a negative effect of about EUR 1.45 billion. The second issue is the consolidated group. In the second quarter of 2020, we had Sprint's prepaid business included, and that's been sold in the meantime, so it had a minus effect of EUR 0.7 billion. The reported net revenue was slightly down by EUR 400 million or 1.7%. If we look at adjusted EBITDA AL, here, too, we see a substantial effect from the weakness of the dollar exchange rate having a negative impact on the group's overall performance. I'll go into that more, as well as the Sprint business. The adjusted EBITDA AL in the second quarter was down 4.2% to EUR 9.4 billion. That's a decline of around EUR 0.4 billion.
The negative effects comes completely from the U.S., first of all, through the weak exchange rate, and secondly, the handset leasing business, which was really important to the Sprint business. That has declined and had a negative effect on the net AL leases from the American business. What's encouraging is the growth in the business outside the U.S., which grew EUR 150 million year-over-year in the second quarter. In sum, organic growth was EUR 400 million, better than the previous year. Free cash flow, as we heard in the second quarter, increased by 14.1%. This was mainly due to the strong operative performance, both in the European and in the American business.
In the first half of the year, that was a 44% increase, there was negative effects from the previous year, the factoring, which amounted to EUR 0.7 billion, and that has to be taken into account, too. That was basically it for Q2. Now I'd like to look at the individual operative segments. Let's start with Germany. We're very pleased about the continued growth in broadband. In the second quarter, we had net customer growth of 93,000. That was in the three-month period. Since 2020, we have seen more than 80,000 broadband net adds in every quarter. With our market share, we're above 50% for the past quarter as well, and we are much higher than the target we set for ourself where we said over the long term, we want to have more than 40% of net adds every year.
Fiber optic base lines increased by 291,000. Our own customers are roughly the same year-on-year, although we've seen a decline in wholesale due to two factors. First of all, competitors are migrating to their own platforms, and in the first half of the year, we had a lower demand from our wholesale partners, but also, we were focusing on the fixed line network in the second half of the year, and we hope to see a lot of adds there. In the area of Supervectoring, we have lines of about 460,000 to just under 1 million. That was the increase. Supervectoring's functioning well. Magenta TV net adds were up 37,000.
That was because in the second quarter, we had a negative impact through shop closures that had a dampening effect on new customer business because you have to explain this business to customers, and we rely on our shops there. Line losses in the fixed network continued to decline due to two effects. First of all, conclusion of IP migration, but also strong growth in broadband. In mobile communications, we grew very steadily there year-on-year by 161,000. Around 62% of our mobile contract customers have now subscribed to a MagentaEINS convergence project, and the churn rate for mobile contract customers remains stable at 0.8%. That's a low level.
Service revenues in the German mobile business increased by 2% in the second quarter, and this was supported by 0.6 percentage points of the year-on-year increase, which is attributed to a recovery in the roaming and visitor revenues with a contrasting effect from the change in mobile communication rates. Fixed network grew 1.7% in organic terms, primarily driven by the broadband business. Total revenue in the segment rose 0.9% to EUR 5.9 billion. In Germany, we have very stable growth with an EBITDA AL. This increase was mainly due to high-value revenue growth, also to sustainable and disciplined cost management. This has meant that Germany has had a positive EBITDA growth for 19 quarters in a row. The last time we had a decline was in 2019. This brings me to T-Mobile US. The integration with Sprint and the build-out of 5G is making huge strides.
We already have migrated 33% of Sprint customers to the T-Mobile network. At the end of Q2, this was only 20%. Around 80% of the mobile traffic of Sprint customers is carried on the T-Mobile network, and that was only 50% at the end of the first quarter. This shows you the pace and speed at which our colleagues in the U.S. have been able to drive the integration of Sprint. The synergy target for the current year has been increased from $2.9 billion-$3.2 billion. Looking at new customers, 1.3 million branded postpaid customers were added in the three-month period. T-Mobile also had a very low churn rate. If you break this down and account for the original T-Mobile brand, we're leading the industry. Total revenue at T-Mobile US increased by 5.4% to $20.1 billion.
Service revenues based on U.S. GAAP increased by 9.5%, and the reported adjusted EBITDA AL decreased by 0.4%. If you look once again at the business model and the change that's been made in the U.S., the old Sprint that we acquired had a business model based on handset leasing, where they listed leasing as assets and depreciated over time. They didn't have any expenses for terminal devices on the cost side, on the liability side, and revenue was translated one to one then into revenue. We want to change this through the very successful installment rate payment model. We're going from handset leasing, moving away from that, and we're no longer depreciating these, but we're listing them immediately.
That has a negative impact on the after-leases revenue. If you compare that year-on-year, you'll see that it was about a half a billion US dollars having a negative impact. This has led to the Americans to say the main parameter is the Core EBITDA. That's nothing other than the EBITDA growth adjusted for the handset leasing. You see the result has increased 7.1% year-on-year. Looking at the Europe segment, we had 177,000 mobile contract net additions and 58,000 more broadband customers. Also, we have a high penetration there of TV customers and FMC net adds rose 128,000. We have most customers in a fixed convergence model in European comparison with our competitors. Also, this trend is bolstered by our network build-out, where we added another 700,000 households in the first half of the year. Segment revenue rose by 4.3% in the second quarter.
This was a result of increased fixed network services, but also sales of terminal devices, and organic growth rose all in sum total, 4.0%. Adjusted EBITDA AL increased 4.4%. That's an extremely strong performance in my opinion. You see this positive trend in the U.S. also being reflected in Europe. Looking at T-Systems, this is very encouraging to see an increase in order entry with one major customer being gained of EUR 350 million, but also continuous growth in digital solutions took place. We still have a negative result here. Between 2020 and 2021 of 5.5% of system solutions. This is the decline due to the traditional infrastructure business. As a result of cost management, we've been able to stabilize this though. The next segment is Group Development, and I'll break this down into T-Mobile Netherlands. First of all, what we see is very strong increase in mobile contract customers.
This is due to the fact that the shops in the Netherlands have been reopened since the end of April. We also have a very stable broadband growth of 15,000 net adds, and this has led sales to rise 5.4%. Revenue rather, in the second quarter, an increase of 2.7%. Mobile service revenues have increased by 3.5% year-on-year on an organic basis. Once again, here, the recovery is accounted for by roaming and visitor revenues. Adjusted EBITDA AL grew by 3.6% in organic terms. In the cell tower business, there has been several developments. The number of towers, first of all, we have cell towers in the Netherlands has been deconsolidated, after we sold part of this to Cellnex. That had a decreasing effect of around 3,100 sites.
The consolidation of cell towers in Austria in this segment since the start of the year has led to an increase in sites. Moreover, the number of sites in Germany increased by around 1,200 to 32,800. This has led recurring lease revenues in the cell tower business increasing by 3.3% in organic terms, and adjusted EBITDA AL increasing by 9.0% in organic terms, primarily due to the high number of management and cell sites at Deutsche Funkturm. In addition to cost reductions, revenue in the group development segment rose 8.9% in organic terms in the second quarter. In organic terms, revenue increased by 3.8%. Much for the overview of the key financials. This brings me now to the group surplus and the debt rate. As you see on the chart, the adjusted net profit grew 65% year-on-year.
This is due to the fact that we had an excellent result with adjusted EBITDA. As I mentioned, the weakness of the dollar had a negative impact on the conversion of Sprint's business leasing model. We had a very strong financial performance. It rose EUR 800 million, mostly due to the value development of call options that we agreed with SoftBank. These alone account for EUR 640 million. Looking at the financial liabilities, we've changed our accounting method a little bit. Why have we done this? A lot of our competitors have already done this, and it makes the financials more comparable. We started in the first quarter of 2021 with EUR 98 billion liabilities, and this declined by the end of the second quarter due to cash flow, free cash flow, and also the valuation of the call option.
Also, the dollar weakness helps us here because the financial liabilities are reduced on the basis of this. Also, the payout of the dividends of EUR 2.9 billion helped us, EUR 2.5 billion helped us too. Also, the ratio of net debt without leasing improved slightly to 2.59 compared to 2.66 in the middle of 2020. Including the lease liabilities, the ratio of net debt to adjusted EBITDA AL was 2.97 at the end of June. We have a pretty stable situation with the debt ratio, and we'll make sure that continues to be the case in the future. The equity ratio has remained stable, and we're very pleased that Moody's has upgraded our rating from negative to stable following the announcement of the T-Mobile US Sprint transaction. We've had three major upgrades from three different Standard & Poor's, Moody's, and Fitch.
They've all raised our rating by one notch, that helps us with financing. The reason they stated for this was they're all convinced that the business case we presented at the capital market, both for the group as a whole and for the U.S., is going to be successful, and they believe that we will put it into practice. Also, the total shareholder return has developed positively and outperformed the DAX. The average share price since the beginning of the year has increased from 19 point-
EUR 19.50 to EUR 21.80. That's it for my report on agenda, and we'll be looking forward to your questions.
Thank you very much, Tim and Christian. Let's do our Q&A session. Mrs. Henning will explain to you in a moment how you can ask your questions in German, those who are listening to the English translation can now ask. If you have a question, please use the chat function to bring up your question. Over to Mrs. Henning for more instructions. Thank you. We are now starting the Q&A. If you have a question, please press asterisk one on your keypad. When it's your turn, we will ask you to ask your question. If you want to withdraw your question, please press asterisk two. Eliana Berger from Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. Your question, please.
Good morning. Thank you.
I was just wondering, can you give us a more precise number on the damage incurred by the flooding, and how much will it cost to actually rebuild the region affected?
We are still at the early stages of evaluating the situation, and of course, we are trying to fix the damage as quickly as we can. The first indication would be to say that it will be more than EUR 100 million. We also have insurance cover. Let me be cautious here because, at the moment, we are working flat out on fixing the damage rather than talking about what the ultimate scale of the damage might be. Handelsblatt GmbH, Mr. Berkman. Thank you. A very good morning to you. At Capital Market Day, you said that you are looking into the options for your cell tower business, including the Netherlands.
Can you bring us up to speed here? We are in the midst of a transaction, or at least talks in the Netherlands, as you were able to gather from the press. There's a very intense bidding process, and I'm afraid I can't comment on it any further. I would ask for your understanding here. As far as our cell tower business in general is concerned, we are evaluating any further options, as we said in our presentations. There might be a partnership with a big cell tower company. Maybe we are selling parts of the business. Even an IPO would be possible. We are looking into all that, and at the moment, I'm afraid we cannot comment on any final decision yet.
Benedikt Müller-Arnold from Süddeutsche Zeitung , please go ahead.
Thank you and good morning. My question goes in the same direction.
Your organic result at group development looks very good, my question is: Is this very good because it leads to higher sales prices, or doesn't it bring up the question of whether it might be a shame to actually dispose a business that produced earnings to the tune of 8% over the past few months?
Well, when we included our Dutch business into group development, there were several reasons for that. First of all, we said we will not be selling a business that is not working well, operationally speaking. On the contrary, we will show that we can fix this business. We also said back then that this business is mobile only. One of our strategies has been that we are pursuing the same business model across the board, which makes us stronger and faster. It also gives us economies of scale in procurement.
It is a complex situation because we are working on a fixed-mobile convergence basis everywhere. At the same time, we've been able to reduce complexity considerably as a result of just that business model, that's the reason why we can show these excellent business results today. Over the past few years, we have achieved a major turnaround in the Dutch market. Earnings have more than doubled with Tele2. We now have a consolidated business. We had cost synergies. We also took Simpel on board and integrated their customer base. We have set up the best network in the Netherlands, all that was sold using an Un-carrier strategy that has produced very positive results. We are strategically positioning ourselves in the Netherlands against two other providers that are offering fixed-mobile in a way that we can't offer it today.
Well, yes, it's a shame, I'm extremely grateful to Thorsten Langheim and his team for this fantastic turnaround, and I think if you want to sell something, then you should always do it from a strong position. You always meet twice in life we want a potential buyer to get a prospering business from us. Against the backdrop of our strategic decisions, we will now continue this possible sales process. We don't have to sell. The price has got to be right, but we would sell if the price was right. Yeah, we are looking at things within Group Development, and we are consistently pursuing our strategy.
Okay. There is one more question here on my list. To all the other journalists out there, if you have a question, please be sure to sign up for the process. Mr. Gein.
Thank you. Good morning. The fourth network operator in Germany is looming on the horizon, and there will be a frequency auction before long. A colleague of yours, Mr. Höttges, said that the frequencies will not be enough for four operators. How do you think will you be able to solve this problem?
Well, first of all, we have three network operators in Germany at the moment, and it is quite fascinating to see that we are rolling out the 5G network at a speed that we've never seen before. Deutsche Telekom is spearheading this development. Of course, we want to be market leader. We want to be technology leader. We want to make the most of our strong position and expand it even further. This is our claim.
Needless to say, we are aware of what 1&1 are doing. I must say I have a lot of respect when it comes to this entrepreneurial decision. When you look at the disaggregation of the access network and the cloudification of the core network architecture, you will find that it does make sense to work with the right partners. They are working with one of the leading technology partners for mobile communications. It does make sense. We are looking forward to competing with them in a joint market. Of course, we will do what we can to maintain our strong position. We could argue here whether it makes sense that the Federal Network Agency only demanded that 1&1 set up 1,000 cell towers.
This is something that ought to be discussed. Of course, it would have been possible for 1&1 to roll out a larger infrastructure without national roaming because one thing is not related to the other. Thank God, this is not my problem. I would hope that infrastructure will also be rolled out by other providers. If other providers are building the infrastructure, then you always need to look at how much money will be left for other expenses. We want to have a good infrastructure. We want to have a nationwide 4G and 5G mobile network. We want to offer a good connection everywhere. Therefore, the question is how much money will actually be spent on mobile spectrum, on mobile licenses? I understand the auction may be in 2023.
These are licenses which are already being used today, which means that if somebody were to lose these licenses in an auction, then they would no longer be able to serve their current customer base. They are making things scarce or resources are becoming tighter, but in an artificial way. Why can't we extend licenses? Why can't we make the necessary resources available free of charge? The state, that is. In this way, frequencies could be used by our customers. It would mean that we could set up more cell sites, improving mobile coverage in Germany if we were given all these resources. You can only spend every EUR once, and that's why I am supporting what my competitors have been saying. Let's not make resources even tighter in an artificial way. Let's not put one competitor at an advantage. We need the resources.
We need to be given the resources that are required for rolling out the infrastructure. That's good for competition. Right. Oh, no, there's one more question. The kurzkon Bittak. Mr. Cantner.
Thank you, Mr. Kundera. I have a question about the build-out of the infrastructure in the flooded areas. You've described what's going on there. Are there plans to launch national roaming in this area? Do you think that would be a good idea to support the recovery work there?
The discussion relating to the flooded area is difficult because 300 network sites were affected. I'm not talking about antennas. Some of them were washed away, too, but especially fiber optic connections which link up these antennas. They go through these valleys that were hit by the floods, and we're doing really pioneering work here. We've been improvising to link up these antennas now, and at the same time, we've been using radio to link up these antennas. If we had national roaming only
on our infrastructure, and that was all that was functioning, everybody would have gone to this infrastructure, and the capacities wouldn't have been enough. Because not only Telekom customers, but Telefonica and Vodafone would've been using this, and the capacity wouldn't have held up to this. That's why I'm of the opinion that we need alternative infrastructures. We need not only one infrastructure. Every company has to get their infrastructure up and running again for the sake of our customers. We have to, of course, take care of our Telekom customers first of all, and we've been successful in that. Our infrastructure wouldn't have sufficient capacities for national roaming.
Yeah, one problem, just to add to that, was the electricity power supply and all the network providers had the same problem there. If you don't have any electrical power, then you can't operate the antennas.
That makes it all the more hard to create local roaming. This is a very complex topic and there is no one fixed solution there. That's why it was just worth adding. That's a very complex issue here. Right now, we're trying to rebuild infrastructure as fast as possible. The fact that we weren't able to move in with our replacement containers very quickly was because the roads were washed away. We used helicopters in some cases in the Ahr Valley to supply food. That had priority, for example, just food supplies and water supplies. As Tim mentioned, worked well with the aid of the German army and we were able to also provide support quick and effectively. I have no more questions. Thank you for listening in today and with Tim and Christian, and thanks for your time.
I hope you have a pleasant day and all the best. See you soon from at Deutsche Telekom. Bye-bye.