Impatient for liberalisation of the German telecommunications market, Veba AG, Cologne-based diversified energy and chemicals company, said yesterday that it plans to build a nationwide telephone network to compete with Deutsche Bundespost Telekom, working in partnership with the state-owned Deutsche Bahn AG railway company. It says it wants the government to prepare the legal framework needed for competition as quickly as possible. Veba is promising to invest $3,875m over a 10-year period building its network, and aims to create 10,000 new jobs – underlining the fact that as the dinosaurs like Telekom have to cut their bloated workforces when competition looms, new rivals are a major source of job creation. Veba believes five competitors will emerge from the private sector.
