Mobile phone and internet telephony on the increase, fixed line network business stagnating

According to the Federal Net Agency in 2006 people in Germany talked almost 7% longer on the phone than in 2005 which corresponds to about 60 hours on a per capita basis. 23% of this time, however, was not talked on the traditional fixed line network where the amount of phoned time has virtually not changed at all since 2002. In the same period of time, on the other hand, the share of internet telephony (VoIP) has quadrupled to 3%. The main competitor to the fixed line network, however, are mobile phones which account for almost 20% of the telephone business. Their share has increased by on third in the course of one year.

Also increased has the telephone via TV cable business. Here business increased from 100 million minutes in the year 2004 to 700 million minutes in the year 2006. However, the share of calls via TV cable as compared to the overall volume of calls amounts to less than one percent.

According to the German Association for Technology Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM), even though the overall volume of calls is increasing, the market for telecommunications services is currently not growing and generated a turnover of 56 billion Euros in 2006. The reason for this are falling prices in the mobile phone business and declining turnover in the fixed line network business. The entire telecommunications market turnover, i.e. services, end devices and infrastructure would also remain constant at about 70 billion Euros in 2007. GERMAN

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