Germany awarded British Telecommunications Plc affiliate Viag Interkom GmbH a Class 4 license to operate a national public telephone network when markets are deregulated in 1998. It also awarded nationwide licenses for speech telephony services to Mannesmann Arcor GmbH and Teleglobe GmbH. Vebacom GmbH has already been awarded such a license, and the ministry also gave Colt Telecom GmbH two more fixed network licenses to build further fiber Metropolitan Area Networks.
