Deutsche Telekom’s 5G Rollout Hits Record Pace in May — MagentaTV World Cup Surge Can’t Stem Stock Decline

Deutsche Telekom’s shares are flashing deeply oversold signals even as the group pushes its network expansion into overdrive. The stock closed Wednesday at €24.24, having shed 7.30% in the past week and 16.18% over the last 30 days. Year-to-date, the equity is down 13.02%, and at €23.54 — the 52-week low touched on June 30 — it sits 29.43% below the February peak of €34.35. The Relative Strength Index stands at 25.9, a level that typically suggests the sell-off has gone too far. So far, the shares have clawed back only 2.97% from that floor.

Against that backdrop, the operator switched on 83 new mobile sites in May alone — more than many rivals manage in a quarter, according to the company. It also upgraded capacity at 677 existing locations. The build-out pushed 5G household coverage to roughly 99% and 4G coverage to near 100%. New sites were concentrated in Bavaria (24), North Rhine-Westphalia (13) and Baden-Württemberg (10).

The expansion is part of what Telekom calls its “Ultra-Kapazitätsnetz” (ultra‑capacity network), a programme designed to double total network capacity. Every site now runs on low‑band frequencies (700, 800 and 900 megahertz) for long-range and in-building coverage. Ninety percent of sites also get mid‑band frequencies between 1,500 and 2,100 megahertz for higher everyday speeds, while the 3.6‑gigahertz band is deployed at traffic hubs to handle congestion. The goal: 90% of all sites should eventually deliver download speeds of 1 gigabit per second per cell.

Fixed‑line infrastructure is accelerating too. In May, Telekom connected 173,000 new fibre‑optic lines, bringing the total number of households and businesses with access to tariffs up to 2,000 Mbit/s to 13.4 million. In the town of Nachrodt‑Wiblingwerde alone, around 2,090 premises were hooked up. The company plans to add another 2.5 million fibre connections by 2026.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Deutsche Telekom?

Meanwhile, MagentaTV is riding the wave of the 2026 football World Cup, which it broadcasts exclusively for the knockout stage. The platform reported a “record World Cup” with sharply higher viewership and new subscriptions. The streaming business is increasingly bundled with telecom services — for example, the MagentaZuhause Hybrid product, which combines fixed‑line and mobile bandwidth to boost data rates, also benefits from the network upgrades.

On July 1, the group launched the third tranche of its share‑buyback programme. Up to €560 million of own stock will be repurchased on Xetra through September 30. The tranche is part of a broader programme worth as much as €2 billion, which management aims to complete by the end of 2026. Most of the bought‑back shares are slated for cancellation, though a small portion will go toward executive and employee compensation schemes.

For the full year 2026, Deutsche Telekom expects a slight increase in revenue and adjusted EBITDA of around €47.5 billion. That outlook, combined with the network momentum and the buyback, paints a picture of operational strength that has yet to persuade equity markets. With the current tranche running until the end of September, the coming months will test whether the gap between fundamentals and share price can finally narrow.