The United Kingdom`s former telecom monopoly, BT Group, reported an increase in fiscal second-quarter profits this week, thanks in part to its strategy of moving away from the shrinking fixed-line telephone market to focus more attention on broadband internet services.

BT`s profits rose 28% to 475 million pounds (US$904.7 million) in the most recent quarter, in sharp contrast to its German counterpart, Deutsche Telekom, whose profits were off by 20% to 1.95 billion Euros (US$2.49 billion).

Deutsche Telekom, which remains Europe`s largest telephone carrier, has focused almost exclusively on its numerous wireless business. The saturated nature of Europe`s cell phone market, however, is preventing the carrier from achieving its wireless sales targets, while its fixed-line telephone business erodes faster than ever before.

This isn’t an industry with impressive growth numbers, said Boris Boehm, a fund manager with Hamburg-based, which owns a significant stake in the German telephone giant. Deutsche Telekom’s future is all about whether they can save money and reorganize the fixed-line business.

Deutsche Telekom is currently the second worst performing stock in the Bloomberg Europe Telecommunication Services Index, and has declined 4.7% over the course of this year. London-based BT, meanwhile, is the Index`s sixth best performer, and has surged by almost 30% since the beginning of January.