ill be marketed by an emerging breed of resellers, such as ACC Telekommunikation, which offers Deutsche Telekom's services with discounts up to 20 percent, and Esprit Telecom, which resells international services.
City carriers, such as COLT and MFS, will serve local markets. Around 120 cities are planning similar services, and 20 of them, including Düsseldorf, Köln, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Nuremberg, Kiel, and Dortmund, are already serving customers. Regional carriers, such as Bayernwerk Netkom; CNS, the joint venture among EVS, Badenwerk, and Swiss Telecom PTT; EWE-Tel; 3T Telekommunikation; and VEW Telnet, will focus on larger areas.
For example, COLT Telekom, with operating networks in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin, and Munich, has interconnection agreements with all major long-distance carriers and recently signed a contract with Hermes Europe Railtel to interconnect with other European cities, such as London, Paris, and
Zurich. As a result, prices for leased lines are down to as much as 10 percent less than Deutsche Telekom's standard offer.
Nationwide competitors to Deutsche Telekom include Arcor, Otelo, and VIAG Interkom. These alternative carriers have ambitions to offer a complete range of telecommunications services for private and business customers alike. This month these carriers are starting to offer innovative services, such as fixed and mobile integration (see the text box above), xDSL services, voice-over-IP networks, and point-to-multipoint ATM connections. A recent study by the Gartner Group's Northern Business Information says that Deutsche Telekom's market share for services will drop from 80 percent in 1996 to 61 percent in 2002.
European Telecoms Brace for Change
