Aug 8 (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom reported a nearly 8% increase in its second quarter core earnings on Thursday with growing mobile customer numbers across Europe.

Telekom, which is Europe's biggest telecoms provider by market capitalisation and also owns T-Mobile US in the United States, posted an adjusted core profit after leases (EBITDA AL) of 10.8 billion euros ($11.8 billion) for the quarter, matching analysts' consensus compiled by Vara.

In its home market Germany, it recorded continued 1% growth in adjusted EBITDA AL compared to last year. The number of mobile customers rose by 13% on the year and 3% from the first quarter.

Customers of its German TV business grew 2.6% from the prior quarter, after a law that prevents landlords from including TV services in rental contracts officially came into effect on July 1, following a transition period that started in December 2021.

Elsewhere in Europe, Telekom's adjusted EBITDA AL grew 8.2% from a year earlier to 1.1 billion euros, with the Bonn-based group calling it record profit growth. Mobile customers increased by 3.6% in the same period.

The group's second quarter net revenue rose 4.3% to 28.4 billion euros, 1.6% ahead of analyst expectations. Free cash flow after leases soared 48.5% to 5.2 billion euros, also beating expectations of 4.5 billion.

The free cash flow was boosted by a 16.3% drop in cash capital expenditures.

The German telecommunications company raised its full-year guidance for free cash flow after leases to around 19 billion euros, from the around 18.9 billion it had previously forecast.

The outlook upgrade follows a similar move by T-Mobile US, which raised its forecasts for free cash flow and monthly bill-paying phone subscriber additions last month.

Telekom's shares were up 1.7% at 0737 GMT. ($1 = 0.9146 euros) (Reporting by Marleen Kaesebier and Eva Orsolya Papp in Gdansk; editing by Ludwig Burger and Milla Nissi)