Deutsche Telekom enters a defining stretch this month as two separate events set to reshape its operational and cost landscape converge. On 19 June, the ver.di trade union commission will vote on a new wage agreement covering roughly 60,000 employees, while on 30 June the company pulls the plug on the MMS service, a messaging staple for more than 20 years. The stock, which has drifted over 19% below its 52-week high of €34.35, reflects the uncertainty, but both developments carry clear implications for the bottom line.
The MMS shutdown is part of a broader industry move to retire older technology. Vodafone ended its service in early 2023, and both Telefónica (o2) and 1&1 are following suit on the same date. The successor is RCS (Rich Communication Services), a free, data-based messaging standard that handles text, images, videos and documents and is already native on modern Android phones. Apple has now integrated RCS too, and 1&1 is among the three German operators supporting the beta of end-to-end encrypted RCS messages launched with iOS 26.5. For Deutsche Telekom, sunsetting MMS trims legacy costs and aligns with a modernisation push that also includes a cybersecurity venture with Palo Alto Networks.
The labour vote carries more immediate financial weight. After four rounds of talks and more than 32,000 workers on strike, ver.di and management reached a tentative deal in late May. The tariff commission has unanimously recommended acceptance. The agreement covers 33 months until the end of 2028 and rules out operational dismissals for the full period. Wages rise in three steps: the additional monthly pay jumps from €190 to €340 in August 2026, then to €480 in July 2027, and the base pay tables increase by 2.4% in June 2028. For an employee on the reference annual salary of roughly €55,000, that’s a total increase of 8.5%. Acceptance would give the group planning certainty over a major cost block and remove strike risk, though the higher outlay must be offset by productivity gains or revenue growth.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Deutsche Telekom?
The financial backdrop is solid. In the first quarter of 2026, organic revenue climbed 4.7% to €29.9 billion, while adjusted EBITDA AL rose 7.5% to €11.5 billion. Management upgraded its full-year guidance, now targeting adjusted EBITDA AL of around €47.5 billion and free cash flow AL of more than €19.8 billion. A share buyback programme with a volume of up to €2 billion is under way; by last week the company had already repurchased approximately 13.66 million of its own shares. Yet the stock remains under pressure, trading at €27.89 on Monday, down 1.55% from the prior close. A technical bright spot came on 12 June when the price broke above its 38-day moving average, but the current pullback is testing that signal with the 50-day moving average at €28.55, just above the prevailing level.
Beyond the immediate catalysts, Deutsche Telekom is planting seeds for future growth. The Sovereign Cortex with T Security offering, developed with Palo Alto Networks, combines AI-driven security tools with a data-sovereign architecture tailored for Europe. Target clients include healthcare organisations, public-sector bodies, financial firms and operators of critical infrastructure. Broader commercial rollout is slated for the third quarter of 2026. The tariff vote on 19 June will offer an early read on labour cost trends ahead of the second-quarter results due on 6 August, while the MMS phase‑out signals a company comfortable shedding legacy services as it invests in the next generation of connectivity and security.
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