German telcos doomed to die in crowded marketplace

NEWS Around two thirds of Germany's telcos will fail to weather the current storm and will go under as a result of the competition in an overcrowded marketplace. Christian Müller-Elschner, partner in the consulting firm Roland Berger, said to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag these companies will either be swallowed up by larger companies to form only few mega-telcos or they will simply vanish without trace. Andreas Gentner, partner at Arthur Andersen, was more conservative in his estimates but still said one third of the country's telcos should not be expecting a long and fruitful life. Gentner believes the coming months will see customers reversing the trends of the past and making a mass return to Deutsche Telekom. By Christian M Wagner, reporter, silicon.de