Telekom Gets More Mobile Customers

German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom said Thursday that it had a total 77.4 million mobile phone customers worldwide in 2004, an increase of 9.1 million over the course of the year. The fourth quarter saw a particularly strong increase in customer numbers, with a total 2.2 million new customers in the period from October to December, company officials said in a statement. Around half of that increase was seen at the US unit, T-Mobile USA, which reported a total 4.2 million new customers during the course of 2004. T-Mobile Deutschland customers numbers rose by 1.1 million over the course of the year, of which 113,000 were acquired in the fourth quarter.