Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!lll-winken!telecom-request From: HOEQUIST@bnr.ca (Charles Hoequist) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: German Telephone Unification Message-ID: Date: 19 Jun 91 19:00:00 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 37 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 471, Message 5 of 11 Just to add some information about German government activity in getting phone service to the Five New Bundeslaender, as they are referred to there: As has been pointed out, people have started using cellular phones to bring their connections with them. This should intensify, as the German federal govt. granted a mobile phone license to a private company (Mannesmann Mobilfunk), the first time anybody's been allowed to compete with the post/telephone monopoly Telekom.There are plans to grant a second private license this year, but restricted to the F.N.B. (are they afraid of some wireless-telephone entrepeneur beating Telekom on its home turf?) This could lead to the F.N.B. using wireless phone almost exclusively for the immediate future, a definite reversal of the situation elsewhere, where wireless is for gadget lovers and yuppies. To improve the wire infrastructure, the German federal government has budgeted 55 billion DM from now through 1997 (about US$32.3 billion right now). This is certainly a low figure, however, as the 1991 improvements budget has already had close to two billion marks added to it. Don't look for anything like the MFJ taking place in Germany, though; Telekom's monopoly is written into the constitution. I can only assume there was some sort of narrow interpretation of the relevant clause in order to allow the wireless competition. Charles Hoequist hoequist@bnr.ca BNR Inc. PO Box 13478 Research Triangle Park NC 27709-3478, USA 919-991-8642 [Moderator's Note: Now that is what we need here in the USA: A constitutional amendment declaring there is but One True Telephone Company and that the others are unconstitutional. :) PAT]