Beyond the Billions: What CY24 Results Reveal About Europe’s Telco Heavyweights

Notes:
• Growth rates shown in red (decline) and green (growth) refer to CY24 B2B revenue growth.
• Figures represent overall B2B revenue, including enterprise business units and services sold to business customers by the parent organization.
• The chart is organized in descending order of CY24 group revenue, with operators arranged left to right from highest to lowest.
• Deutsche Telekom (DT) is placed first as it recorded the highest total revenue in CY24. However, in this graph T-Mobile US has been excluded from DT’s revenue in this analysis, as the company does not report a segmented B2B vs B2C revenue breakdown for the U.S. market. This exclusion ensures a more accurate and consistent comparison of DT’s European B2B revenue contribution.

Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom’s B2B revenue comes from the summation of two segments: German Business Customers and Systems Solutions (T-Systems). Deutsche Telekom serves enterprise clients globally, but only these two components are reported in the operator’s annual statements. German Business Customers, part of Deutsche Telekom’s Germany segment, generated €8.7B in CY24, down 5.7% YoY (mainly due to reclassification of some revenue as wholesale since January 2024).

Systems Solutions, operating under the T-Systems brand, focuses on ICT services in the DACH region, spanning cloud, digital, security, and advisory services as well as road toll systems. Revenue rose to €4.0B in CY24, up 2.8% YoY, reflecting steady strategic growth.

System Solutions’ growth was driven by:
• Expanding demand for digital, cloud, and road charging services
• Strong momentum in public sector IT contracts, a key vertical for T-Systems
• Ongoing customer migration from legacy infrastructure to digital platforms

Despite ongoing pressure in traditional services, the gains in high-growth areas allowed Systems Solutions to post a 3.7% increase in external revenue and a 2.3% rise in service revenue, signaling healthy market traction and improved portfolio relevance.

The overall YoY revenue decline of -1.2% shown in figure 5 for Deutsche Telekom is the result of growth in its System Solutions segment being offset by a decline in revenue from its German business segment. Together they represent 31% of DT total revenue of $44,063063M excluding the U.S. region.

Telefónica

Telefónica Tech (TTech) is the digital services arm within Telefónica’s broader B2B segment. It focuses on services such as cloud, cybersecurity, IoT and Big Data, and AI and automation, while the B2B segment overall includes traditional connectivity and managed services. In CY24, TTech generated €2,065M in revenue, growing 10% YoY and contributing to total B2B revenue of €8,957M, up 4.8% YoY.

Main B2B growth drivers included:
• Bookings and commercial funnel growing at 30% YoY and 15% respectively in CY24
• Enhanced business sustainability and larger, higher-value projects in the backlog

TTech’s cybersecurity and cloud revenue amounted to €1,821M (up 12.3% YoY), and its IoT and data revenue totaled €246M (down 4.8% YoY) in CY24.

Orange

Orange Business contributed 19% of Orange’s total revenue in CY24, at €7.8B, down 1.9% YoY due to the decline in fixed service revenues. Although declining modestly, the segment demonstrated strategic resilience and a relative shift toward higher-value digital services.

B2B growth was driven by:
• IT and integration services, up slightly (by 2.7% comparable growth, or €102M) in a complex IT market
• Orange Cyberdefense (part of IT services), up 11.2% or €120M

Despite ongoing pressure on legacy product lines and equipment sales, positive momentum in IT and mobile segments demonstrates good portfolio realignment and robust underlying market traction.

Vodafone

Enterprise customers of all sizes are handled through Vodafone Business. The unit reports service (as opposed to total) revenue, which amounted to €7.9 billion in CY24, 21% of (total) group revenue. This was up 3.2% on CY23 (based on restated figures that exclude Italy and Spain), making Vodafone one of only two telcos in the group to be growing its B2B business.

Vodafone’s B2B growth drivers include:
• Strong demand for digital services (cloud, security, and IoT), particularly in the MEA region. Cloud revenue grew 25% YoY on average per quarter, and digital services grew from 17% of total business service revenue at the start of CY24 to 20% by the end.
• Demand for fixed connectivity, again particularly in MEA.
• Project work, often in the public sector, in some markets including the U.K.

Against the growth in digital services and fixed connectivity, Vodafone’s B2B mobile business was challenged during the year, from falling inflation-linked price increases as well as ARPU erosion during large contract renewals, notably in Germany.

BT

BT Business, the merger of the former U.K.-focused BT Enterprise with BT Global, accounted for 38% of BT’s total revenue in CY24. While this is a higher relative contribution than the other operators, and in absolute terms is larger than Telefonica, Orange, and Vodafone, the unit has underperformed for several years, being 23% smaller at the end of CY24 compared with the start of CY20.

There are few positive growth drivers to report, with most B2B segments in decline. U.K. SMB was a relatively strong performer up to CY24 but growth has since flattened and turned negative. The U.K. CPS (corporate and public sector) business, conversely, has turned from strongly negative to broadly stable in CY24.

In terms of service offerings, security is a consistent growth area, and BT is betting on its global NaaS platform, Global Fabric, to revitalize its B2B portfolio and boost its international business over the next few years. The first customer went live on Global Fabric in March 2025 and the roadmap sees many of BT’s network services being offered via the platform over the next two years.

Major Announcements and Events

These are some of the main revenue-impacting developments by operator during CY24:

BT

• December 2024: BT Group signed a new £1.29B contract with the U.K. Home Office to deliver mobile services for the government’s Emergency Services Network, aiming to enhance communication capabilities for emergency responders.
• November 2024: Reports, later confirmed by BT, suggested that the company was looking at options for its international business following a long period of underperformance globally and a strategic focus on the U.K. market.
• August 2024: Indian Bharti Enterprises agreed to purchase a 24.5% stake in BT Group from Altice, making Bharti the largest shareholder in BT.
• February 2024: BT Group welcomed Allison Kirkby as its CEO, the first woman to lead the U.K. telecom giant.

Deutsche Telekom

• November 2024: Deutsche Telekom awarded Nokia a contract to roll out a large-scale commercial Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) across more than 3,000 sites in Germany, supporting the operator’s strategy to diversify its supplier base and enhance network efficiency.
• July 2024: Deutsche Telekom’s U.S. subsidiary T-Mobile US announced a joint venture with KKR to acquire fiber ISP Metronet. T-Mobile is investing about $4.9 billion for a 50% stake in the JV, which will absorb Metronet’s two million FTTH customers across 17 states.

Orange

• May 2024: Orange announced the completion of the merger between Orange Romania SA and Orange Romania Communications SA as of June 1, 2024.
• March 2024: Orange and MásMóvil completed the creation of a 50:50 JV valued at €18.6 billion in Spain, combining their operations to form a leading operator in terms of customers.
• February 2024, Orange SA exited the retail banking business, after years of losses, by transferring its Orange Bank customers to BNP Paribas.

Telefónica

• November 2024: The Spanish government approved Saudi Arabian STC Group’s acquisition of a 9.9% stake in Telefónica, allowing STC to appoint a board member, with conditions to safeguard national interests.
• July 2024: Telefónica and Vodafone Spain (now owned by Zegona) agreed to form a joint fiber venture in Spain. The non-binding MOU outlines plans to combine and expand FTTH networks to cover ~3.5 million premises.
• February 2024: Telefónica finalized an agreement to sell its Telefónica Argentina unit for about $1.245B to Telecom Argentina.

Vodafone

• December 2024: Vodafone Group’s merger with Three U.K. received conditional approval from the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), forming the largest mobile operator in Britain.
• December 2024: Vodafone, in partnership with AST SpaceMobile, achieved a world-first: a direct-to-mobile satellite video call using a standard smartphone.
• May 2024: Vodafone sold its Spanish operations to Zegona Communications for €5B, as part of its strategy to simplify its portfolio and focus on core markets.
• March 2024: Swisscom agreed to acquire 100% of Vodafone Italia for €8B, aiming to merge it with its subsidiary Fastweb to create a leading converged operator in Italy.
• January 2024: The U.K. government raised national security concerns over the 14.6% stake in Vodafone Group acquired by Emirates telecom e& (formerly Etisalat).

Conclusion

This post has provided comparisons over a limited selection of metrics. Starting with CY 25Q1 results, we will publish more detailed comparisons and analyses in IDC’s European Enterprise Communications Services program, initially across the five operators presented here.