January 2025 was the start to the year, but also the start of something new in the wholesale space. Or rather, something new from something familiar: T Wholesale came into being.
Born out of a combination of Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier and the national Wholesale division of Telekom Deutschland, the consolidation is aimed at providing solutions covering Germany, Europe and the world from a single, streamlined source.
Capacity caught up with Dr Kerstin Baumgart, director of wholesale at Deutsche Telekom, to discuss the convergence and how the firm plans to leverage expertise from both its local and international markets to better serve clients and partners.
Talking of the driving force behind the merger, Baumgart says the move “started from the customer”.
“When I look into the portfolio and how we are interacting with the clients, there is a need to streamline solutions and portfolios,” she says. “There is also a lot of cross-border demand, so the driving force was combining the expertise we have in the local market with that of the international market to support all aspects that are coming from our partners and our clients.”
While only a few months into the merger, Baumgart says the combined offering is already providing a positive impact.
“It meant we could strengthen our market position, taking products and services that we are offering right now in the German market to the international market and vice versa.
“It’s all about coming from the angle of the customer, really understanding what we can offer, broadening the portfolio, and bringing services to relevant markets and go-to-market with one streamlined portfolio.”
When asked about the benefits for existing customers, Baumgart highlights that the merger simplifies interactions by providing a unified front.
“We used to have separate sales forces going to the customer,” she explains. “Now we can combine these to present one face, enhancing the user experience significantly.”
By adopting a unified approach with T Wholesale, Baumgart says the company is set for a boost in agility and efficiency, freeing resources for innovation and improvements in customer service.
Wholesale growth: A2P, network APIs & satellites
T Wholesale’s new structure comprises three distinct areas of operation: B2C Wholesale, focused on the German market; B2B Wholesale, covering national and European markets; and the global wholesale business, which includes roaming services, IoT and digital communications.
One growth area that Baumgart highlights is digital communications, with a strong emphasis on multichannel services such as application-to-person (A2P) messaging, rich communication services and network APIs in general.
Baumgart identifies this segment as essential for enabling enterprises and wholesale customers to better engage their end users through secure, authenticated channels.
“There’s a robust demand for channels offering carrier-grade reliability,” she notes.
On network APIs specifically, Deutsche Telekom laid the groundwork for growth in this segment partly by being a first mover in the telco industry as a founding member of Aduna last year.
As a joint venture to combine and sell network APIs on a global scale, thus spurring innovation in digital services, Baumgart describes Aduna as one of T Wholesale’s “important levers” to boost its network API efforts and “grow the ecosystem”.
“There is a broad community of partners, especially in the digital communications sphere, and it makes sense to work closely with many of them coming from the supplier side, but also from different technology partnerships,” she says. “We are really trying to develop and support this ecosystem.”
Another area of growth being eyed by T Wholesale is the satellite space – a topic about which Baumgart is clearly passionate.
Recognising the satellite segment not as a threat but as complementary, Baumgart says: “We view satellite connectivity as an opportunity, especially for areas where terrestrial networks aren’t feasible. It’s essential for redundancy solutions and ensuring connectivity in remote locations, especially for our enterprise customers.”
Moreover, the growth in low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite services aligns with Deutsche Telekom’s ambitions.
As Baumgart points out: “With LEO, we see improved bandwidth and lower latency, making it a viable option for specific rural areas where deploying fibre is either technically challenging or economically unfeasible. While our fibre network remains a cornerstone of our business, we believe satellite solutions can help us optimise capital and operational expenditure in these niche areas.”
Talking about future market conditions, Baumgart acknowledges pressures from competition, regulation and pricing, but expresses optimism about areas like digital communications and AI-driven infrastructure demand positioning T Wholesale to leverage shifts effectively.
“We're prepared for the headwinds, and see clear opportunities in AI connectivity and digital
communications,” Baumgart says. “Our focus is to remain agile, customer-centric and innovative as we navigate and shape the wholesale market landscape.”
How AI comes into play
AI is slowly emerging into every facet of the telco industry – and this will be no different at the merged T Wholesale, where it’s set to play a central role.
Baumgart emphasises that digitalisation and automation will be core elements in T Wholesale’s future strategy.
“We are heavily focused on automation and API-based solutions,” she says. “Whether it's optimising leased-line interfaces or advancing digital services, the goal is clear: eliminate manual processes to improve both efficiency and reliability.”
She revealed that the wholesale firm is exploring numerous AI use cases internally, particularly for replacing manual tasks through automation.
“This includes everything from basic front-line tasks to sophisticated second-line support assisted by large language models.”
There’s also interest at the firm in agentic AI, or agent-based automation, with Baumgart confirming that the wholesale business is keeping an eye on what the retail brand is doing in this space to see what’s working and how it can be used for second and third-level support.
Learning from last time
Bringing together two entirely separate units sounds like a headache just waiting to happen, but Deutsche Telekom has done it before.
The formation of T Business several years ago saw similar consolidation efforts, merging various business units into a cohesive entity.
Baumgart explains that experiences from this previous endeavour have proved invaluable.
“We discovered that T Wholesale has a unique DNA – it requires the ability to serve customers that might be competitors in other markets,” she explains. “That experience showed us how important it is to leverage existing customer relationships and focus on addressing their specific needs.”
Baumgart also highlights that the previous integration taught the company about streamlining interactions, removing complexity and redundancy from customer engagements.
“We learned that approaching customers with a unified portfolio and a clear, consistent message is critical. This ensures we maximise the expertise and resources across different parts of our business, ultimately delivering superior value and service,” Baumgart concluded.
As T Wholesale steps into its future, Deutsche Telekom demonstrates that strategic consolidation, powered by customer-centric innovation and agility, positions the company to effectively navigate and shape the evolving wholesale landscape.
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