Deutsche Telekom: Satellite Threat, Lab Wins and a Buy Rating That Isn't an All-Clear
Published on 10/26/2026 at 05:40 | Editorial boerse-global.de
A single Reuters report was enough to knock 3.7% off Deutsche Telekom on Friday, as the stock moved in lockstep with a broader slide in US telecom names. The story behind the selling: SpaceX is reportedly in talks to secure access to at least 80,000 mobile sites as it weighs building a fourth US wireless network. For Deutsche Telekom, which owns more than 50% of T-Mobile US, that lands close to home.
Yet the distinction between talks and a built network matters. What the reports describe is a potential new entrant, not a completed market entry — a risk scenario rather than a confirmed rollout. The pressure on the share price reflects worries about future competition, not an established change in the market.
Two Buy Calls, One Trimmed Target
Analysts have not flinched on their ratings, even as they flag the danger. Deutsche Bank Research kept the stock at "Buy" with a EUR 40 price target on 19 October, with analyst Robert Grindle pointing to risks from agent-based AI and Starlink's US wireless ambitions. Barclays, roughly a week earlier, cut its target from EUR 35 to EUR 32 while staying at "Overweight," citing satellite technology and agentic AI as the concerns.
Read together, the two calls are no uniform alarm bell — both houses held their positive investment verdicts. The target reduction does show that risk assessments can harden without a downgrade. A buy rating, in other words, is not an all-clear on the competitive landscape.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Deutsche Telekom?
Lab Results and a Field Test to Come
On the operating side, the group has progress to show. Deutsche Telekom, Nokia and NVIDIA reported measurable gains in AI-RAN lab tests using NVIDIA AI Aerial, where AI-based uplink channel estimation delivered typical throughput improvements of 10% to 15%. A field test is the next step. The caveat for investors is clear: the measurements demonstrate a technical benefit under lab conditions, not a proven improvement in live network operations.
AI also sits inside the group's growth plans. For the current year, Deutsche Telekom expects around EUR 250 million in AI-related revenue with enterprise customers outside the US, a figure targeted to reach roughly EUR 800 million by 2030. Those ambitions are a separate matter from the lab results — one concerns a possible AI application in the network, the other the corporate-customer business outside America.
A Joint Satellite Bid Still Taking Shape
Deutsche Telekom is also exploring its own satellite option. Together with Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone, it signed a letter of intent — announced on a Tuesday — to examine a joint bid in Europe's future spectrum award for mobile satellite services. A satellite partner has yet to be chosen, and no binding offer can be inferred from the agreement.
At the AI investor day on 5 October, the company confirmed both its guidance and its medium-term targets. The next concrete checkpoint is third-quarter 2026 results on 5 November.
Confirmed group goals and early technical wins thus sit alongside a competitive threat that remains unresolved. The quarterly figures will offer the next basis for judging operating performance; the SpaceX reports, for now, bear only on how the competitive field might shift.
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