Fergie's Tech Blog

As Tele2 owns more, risks rise

Kevin J. O'Brien writes in The International Herald Tribune:

Eleonore Gers has not had a moment's rest since last Tuesday. That was when one of her clients, the Swedish telecommunications company Tele2, began selling flat-rate DSL Internet service in Germany. At 28.94 a month, Tele2's offer is almost 30 percent less than that of Deutsche Telekom, the market leader.

"We've been getting thousands of calls a day," said Gers, who works in a call center with 220 people in Rostock, Germany. She said the offer, the equivalent of about $35, " is the best DSL Internet deal in Germany right now, and a lot of people are rushing to grab it."

Fueled by a flood of ads covering billboards, magazines, newspapers and television in Germany, Tele2 is well on its way to conquering another piece of the Continent's telecommunications landscape. It is already Europe's largest so-called alternative telephone company, with 29.4 million customers in 25 countries.

As is usually the case, Tele2 does not own its DSL network in Germany but is renting space on the network of Deutsche Telekom, which is required by European law to sell access to its network to competitors like Tele2.

posted by Fergie @ 10/30/2005 06:59:00 AM