British Telecommunications Plc and its German partner Viag AG welcomed Telenor A/S to their alliance: the Norwegian phone company will take a 10% stake in their joint telecommunications activities in Germany – to be run by a new company called Viag Interkom GmbH from April 1. Telenor and Viag built a test DCS 1800 digital cellular phone network in Austria, and Telenor is a co-operating partner of the British Telecommunications Plc-MCI Communications Corp’s Concert alliance. State-owned Telenor had revenue of about $2.7bn last year and its 1 million subscribers give it 80% of the Norwegian cellular phone market, in which penetration is close to 30% against just 6% in Germany – making it the most developed mobile phone market in the world. Viag Interkom will continue to look for a fourth partner to bring the marketing skills needed to build a mass market for cellular services; the new partner would also take 10%.
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