Net booming in Europe
Region's largest telephone companies are racing to expand online services
August 18, 1997: 2:30 p.m. ET
LONDON (Reuter) - Europe's biggest telecommunications companies are racing to increase their Internet access business while at the same time competing with the Internet by expanding their own online services, a research consultancy said Monday.
Datamonitor said the major phone companies in Belgium, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden control 34 percent of Internet access on average.
But the picture varies from a mere 2 percent of Internet access in Britain for British Telecommunications PLC to 55 percent in Germany for T-Online, which is part of Deutsche Telekom AG.
Companies like Belgacom, the Belgian telephone company, BT and France Telecom SA had failed to use their dominant local telecom positions to achieve Internet access control, the report said "However, they are now taking significant proportions of new subscribers to gain market share," Datamonitor said in a release that announced its new report on phone company strategies for consumer interactive services.
Eight of the nine telecom companies studied offered some kind of online service and all nine plan to expand services in that area. "All nine PTOs (public Telephone operators) studied intend to increase their online services provision, since they see future profits in this area," Datamonitor said.
"Areas for development include shopping and banking, which will take off as soon as secure online payment systems are accepted," it said. |
