BT expands links in Germany
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.BT is negotiating with Mannesmann to secure access to the telephone infrastructure the German industrial giant is constructing as part of its plans to carve out a share of Germany's domestic telecommunications market when it is opened up in 1998.
BT also plans to take a significant slice of the German market through its alliance with the conglomerate Viag, which aims to set up a new mobile phone network.
Mannesmann, through its telecoms joint venture DBKom, is laying cable throughout Germany alongside the railway tracks owned by Deutsche Bahn, which is part of the consortium.
Although DBKom will be acompetitor to the BT-Viag alliance, German telecoms specialists say that it would be prepared to rent space on its new fixed-line network to offset the cost of the multi-billion pound infrastructure investment.
It was a dispute over strategy that prompted RWE, a leading German utility, to leave the BT-Viag alliance last week and join a rival consortium headed by Cable & Wireless and Veba, the German energy group.
RWE quit because it disagreed with the BT-Viag view that extensive infrastructure spending was inefficient and that investment should be aimed instead at developing services and providing a seamless network to link mobile and fixed-line services.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments