Rubbing it in to the Deutsche Bundespost Telekom that companies need to be in the private sector to achieve the fleetness of foot necessary to seal alliances in the timely manner needed in the fast-changing world of telecommunications, Mannesmann AG yesterday revealed plans to form a new facilities management and network integration company in partnership with the RWE Energie AG electric power unit of RWE AG and Deutsche Bank AG. Mannesmann will initially take 50% of the joint company, the others 25% each, but international partners are being sought, and the first place to look will no doubt be the Mannesmann Mobilfunk GmbH digital cellular telephony affiliate, in which Pacific Telesis Group Inc’s PacTel Cellular Inc, Cable & Wireless Plc and water utility Lyonnais des Eaux SA are shareholders. The new company will offer to build and run corporate networks mainly for corporate customers in the German and other European telecommunications markets. Both Mannesmann and RWE will lease their own internal networks to the new company and additional lines will be rented from the Bundespost Telekom; the venture will also have access to Mannesmann Mobilfunk’s D2 cellular phone network and RWE’s network of power lines, through which RWE already transfers its own internal data. The three companies have also joined a new consortium led by RWE Energie which is bidding for a German government licence to operate a digital mobile telephone network for data services. This includes Mannesmann Eurokom GmbH, Deutsche Bank, Stuttgart-based power company Energieversorgung Schwaben AG, Sweden’s state phone company Telia International AB, and Cofira SA of France. The new network will be aimed at transport companies, taxi and bus services, property management and energy and credit card companies.
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