T-Online, Europe's biggest ISP, has announced smaller-than-expected losses and increased sales.

The company, majority-owned by Deutsche Telekom, posted losses before interest, tax etc. of £21.6 million, down from £26.5 million last year. Analysts actually expected losses to increase slightly to £27.7 million. This comes on top of a 50 per cent increase in sales in the nine months up to September to £498 million.

Despite this, and promises by the company that things could only get better, its share price has dropped slightly this morning.

One reason could be that some analysts suspect the bulk extra sales are to parent company Deutsche Telekom - T-Online has not published much information about the sources of its new revenues.

Analysts also want the ISP to move away from low-price unmetered offerings and get into high-profit Internet services. Deutsche Telekom is obliging. Slowly. ®