Germany’s public telephone operator the Deutsche Bundespost Telekom is making life difficult for the creators of Germany’s first private telephone network, Mannesmann Mobilfunk GmbH. Both Telekom and Mannesmann are setting up digital cellular telephone networks under the pan-European standard, Groupe Speciale Mobile. However to run the networks, both need to use wired lines at some point – and, reports the Financial Times, in an echo of the British Telecommunications Plc access charges row just settled to the third parties’ satisfaction, Mannesmann is complaining that Telekom, the only possible supplier, is charging it too much to lease them. An independent committee found that the price of the leased lines was four times higher than the Organisation of Economic Co-operation & Development average and it recommended that Telekom reduce the price by 60%. The Postal Ministry, which owns Telekom, said the price should come down by 54%, arguing that the cost of extending the telephone network into former East Germany would be high, and Mannesmann has reluctantly accepted the 54%. However Telekom has rejected the recommendation – and now has until the end of August to come up with an alternative offer. There are also reports that both networks have run into supplier trouble, with Motorola Inc, Siemens AG and Robert Bosch GmbH complaining they have not had enough time to develop equipment because the GSM standard was not ratified until the start of the year. Telekom has begun a service in some towns and Mannesmann started to trial its offering on July 1.
