Telecommunications

Telecommunications

The Challenge of Chaos
Who is Who

 

The Incumbent in all areas

  • Deutsche Telekom AG with its fixed network, T-Mobile (D1) and T-Online
 

The other large fixed network operators

  • Arcor with the remains of o.tel.o and shares in various City Carriers (now a subsidiary of Vodafone, GB, possibly going public)
  • BT Ignite, since the beginning of 2001 separated from VIAG Interkom as a 100% direct subsidiary of BT (British Telecom)
  • COLT (GB), with strong network capabilities, concentration on corporate customers and resale to other carriers and resellers
  • Worldcom/MCI (USA), concentration on business users, still operational despite a dramatic bankruptcy in the USA

The other mobile competitors

  • Vodafone D2 (formerly Mannesmann): no longer the leading mobile operator following a successful comeback by D1
  • E-Plus, now KPN, Netherlands trying to differentiate the brand from competition and set up a base for UMTS with the Japanese I-Mode concept
  • O2, formerly VIAG Interkom, the late starter, with GSM and UMTS; since the beginning of 2001 a 100% subsidiary of the BT Wireless Group, now mmO2, challenging E-Plus for the third place in the market
  • MobilCom, with the brands MobilCom, Cellway, D-Plus, TelePassport: despite the 28.5% shareholding by France Télécom overreached itself with the UMTS effort and is now moving back to basics as a simple service provider
  • debitel (Swisscom), the leading service provider
  • Talkline (TeleDanmark = SBC/Ameritech), also concentrating on the company's original activity as a service provider in the mobile market

The City Carriers

  • Isis, Düsseldorf (with a major shareholding by Arcor)
  • Berlikom, Berlin
  • Netcologne, Cologne (now Callaghan, USA)
  • M'Net, Munich
  • Tesion, Stuttgart
  • Hansenet, Hamburg
  • TeleBel, Wuppertal
  • + 40 more

partly tied up in alliances and groupings such as RegioNet and Tropolys

The Losers

  • Callino, the former market leader in wireless local loop, until the US financier cut off the cash
  • TelDaFax, one of the first aggressive challengers in the fixed network
  • Esprit, after financial problems in the US parent GTS withdrawal from the market
  • C@llas, the attempt by the Bertelsmann Group to move into the telecoms-market
  • Quam, the unsuccessful 10 billion DM attempt by the Spanish Telefónica and Finland's Sonera to force their way into the German mobile telephony market with GSM and UMTS

and many more.....