German company leads Internet race

Date: 25/09/1997

DEUTSCHE Telekom has entered the Internet market in a big way, with its specialist unit T-Online claiming 1.7 million customers - making it the country's and Europe's leading online service.

At the end of 1996, it had 28&percent; of all Internet users in Europe on its books, easily overshadowing other phone company initiatives in the sector such as the Telecom Netherlands' Planet Internet (70,000 subscribers), France Telecom's Wanadooo (31,000 subscribers), and an estimated 20,000 for BT Internet.

T-Online was built on the back of a video-text service launched in 1983. It is aiming to seal cooperation deals with its Swiss counterpart and offer a more international package to customers through the Global One partnership with France Telecom and Sprint.

At the moment, T-Online is coy about giving any figures on its revenues or even revealing whether or not it is making a profit. However, it does stress that it is not giving loss-leading deals to new subscribers which would distort the market.