Sluggish sales hit T-Online

T-Online has seen rivals compete for high-speed internet access

Europe's top internet provider T-Online has said sales growth fell by 10% in the last three months of 2003.

It follows growth of 21.5% in the first nine months of the year, and shares in the company fell 10% on the news.

T-Online, which has 13.1 million users in Germany, said disappointing sales of high-speed broadband internet connections slowed growth.

Quarterly pre-tax earnings were 83.2m euros ($103m; £56m) and the firm said core earnings in 2003 were 320m euros.

We are somewhat concerned that the weak revenue performance is due to some slowing down in T-Online's highly profitable DSL subscription access business Ilaria Magagnoli, CSFB technology analyst

Revenue for the final quarter was 504.2m euros.

"We are not happy with the growth of only 100,000 customers in the broadband segment," said chief executive Thomas Holtrop at a news conference.

Analysts said the slowdown in revenue and subscriber growth suggested growth, driven by lucrative, high-speed DSL internet services, was flagging.

"We are somewhat concerned that the weak revenue performance is due to some slowing down in T-Online's highly profitable DSL subscription access business," said CSFB analyst Ilaria Magagnoli in a research note.

Bonus payments

Meanwhile, it was announced company executives were to receive bonus payouts for the first time - totalling more than their annual salaries - for their performance in 2003.

In 2002, T-Mobile had produced a net loss of 459.3m euros (£311m; $500m).

Mr Holtrop is to get a 627,950 euro bonus for meeting his goals during the year, the company said in its annual report.

The bonus, to be approved by the supervisory board, comes on top of a basic salary of 616,000 euros.