1&1 Drillisch said on Monday it was still in talks with Telefonica Deutschland on striking a national roaming deal after cutting its profit outlook due to a price hike for its existing network access deal. drillisch national roaming

The independent telecom is not considering opening talks on an alternative national roaming deal with Germany’s other network operators, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone finance chief Markus Huhn told analysts on a conference call.

Shares in 1&1 Drillisch and its parent, United Internet, slumped on Monday after the German telco warned that an increase in the cost of its network access deal with Telefonica Deutschland would hit profits this year.

The virtual mobile network operator said Telefonica Deutschland would increase prices from July 1 under a five-year extension to a deal that resulted from merger remedies on Telefonica dating back to 2014.

As a result, Drillisch now expects earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization to come in at 600 million euros ($712 million) this year – down from 683.5 million last year.

Drillisch shares fell 27.8%.

Analysts asked CFO Markus Huhn why Drillisch had not seen the price hike coming earlier.

Huhn said Drillisch had based its earlier outlook on expectations that Telefonica Deutschland’s price would come down gradually. Instead, the price for July and August was higher – based on a 12-month average for the previous year.

Shares in parent United Internet slid by 23%. Tycoon Ralph Dommermuth owns 42.5% of United Internet and is CEO of both companies.

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