T-Online, the ISP arm of German incumbent phone company, Deutsche Telekom is taking it on the chin from rival broadband service providers. A price war between T-Online, Freenet.de and Vodafone’s Arcor fixed line subsidiary pushed T-Online’s profits down 82% in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter this year they made about $13 million in profits, versus last year. Sales were up, a miniscule 2.5%.
The good news, (I guess), all these price cuts helped T-Online add 1.5 million new DSL customers. But this good news is going to last only for so long – most of the companies are thinking/planning transition to fiber and we can expect the ‘speed-wars’ in that market. More on the German market @ Broadband Wiki.
PS: If you are a reader based in Germany, and would like to contribute to GigaOM on the latest developments in Germany, drop me a note with “contributor” in the subject line.
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