Deregulation in Germany has been a large issue for a number of years, and it's interesting to see that now that it's happened, Deutsche Telekom isn't sitting on it's ___. I wonder how DGIV is going to fit in the mix.
zdnet.com
One thing I do know is that Germans love their technology. They're loyal to a fault, which makes it hard for them to change, but when they do, to use Rocketman's phrase, Katy bar the door!
Berliners and phones are a very interesting phenomenon. They love their "handies" - which are mobile phones. It seems like everyone has at least one. It ended up being really hard for me when I was there last October, for the friends I was staying with no longer had a "stationary" phone in their flat, and sure enough when I got up in the morning, the handies were gone, thrown into the backpacks and off to work. Riding on the Strassenbahn, many people were using them constantly. Renting one was cost-prohibitive, so I was using phone cards at the phone booths, which also ended up being very expensive. The Telekom was well aware of what was going on, and as deregulation got closer and closer, prices for services kept going up. I don't remember the rates, but apparently, the week before the changeover, using the operator was going to cost an arm and a leg.
And this has been changing fast. I was there the year before and only a few people were playing with handies.
Though I'm wondering about competition with DT, this is a very fertile ground for Digitcom, which makes me as an investor very happy!
Chip |
