more revenue!
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AtHome in venture with German cable group
Plans to deliver high-speed Net services in Germany
By Barbara Kollmeyer, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:51 PM ET Sep 22, 1999
Also: NewsWatch
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- ExciteAtHome on Wednesday
said it's forming a joint venture with Germany's second-biggest cable
operator, Tele-Columbus, and the German group's parent, Deutsche
Bank Investor.
Under the venture, to be called AtHome Deutschland, a version of
ExciteAtHome's (ATHM: news, msgs) high-speed cable Internet will be
developed and marketed in Germany. The site is expected to enter into a
distribution agreement with Tele-Columbus to deliver the service to
around 2.2 million homes. Tele-Columbus has 1.7 million subscribers.
ExciteAtHome hopes
to extend the venture
to other cable
operators, including
future regional cable
companies that take
on the nine regional
cable-TV networks
for which Deutsche
Telekom AG (DT:
news, msgs) is seeking
buyers.
Deutsche Telekom is Europe's biggest telecommunications group, while
Germany is the world's second-biggest cable market after the United
States.
Through the deal between the U.S. and German companies, the number
of homes passed by AtHome affiliated cable operators outside the United
States could reach 16.3 million.
Speedy service
The company said AtHome Deutschland will offer
subscribers fast Internet access, plus a variety of
content and applications. German cable operators,
it said, will be provided with an end-to-end
platform for Internet content, which will give
customers one-stop shopping services from various
providers.
"With 11 million Internet users, Germany is an
extremely promising market for high-speed cable
Internet services to the PC and other devices,"
John O'Farrell, international senior vice president of
ExciteAtHome, said in a statement.
In Germany, one of the biggest problems for
Internet users remains the high cost of staying
online. Speaking at an e-commerce conference last
week, American Online (AOL: news, msgs)
Europe executive Andreas Schmidt said Internet
usage in Europe is being hampered by the cost of
staying connected. See full story.
AOL's action
In August, AOL Europe cut its subscription fees to a flat rate to give
Germans unlimited access to its service, but customers must still contend
with metered charges from the formerly state-owned telecommunications
monopoly, Deutsche Telekom.
Shares of ExciteAtHome were down 11/32 to 36 5/16 in New York near
midday Wednesday.
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