Online Access in Germany is about to get significantly cheaper.
On Wednesday, upstarts Mannesmann Arcor and Viag Interkom both announced Internet access fees that would significantly undercut market leader Deutsche Telekom and the German arm of America Online.
Both services said they would eliminate fees for local calls and monthly subscription rates. Deutsche Telekom (DT), chiefly owned by the German state, still holds a monopoly on local calls. The upstarts plan to get around Deutsche Telekom by offering special, nationwide access numbers that would bill online access by the second.
Viag Interkom said it would charge a flat fee of 10 pfennigs (US$0.06) per minute at any time of day, while Mannesmann Arcor would charge 16 pfennigs at peak hours and 12 pfennigs at other times. By comparison, Germans typically pay 8 pfennigs a minute for the local call to access their providers, and DM10-50 for monthly subscriptions. In many cases, customers must also pay hourly usage charges.
These high costs have prevented the Internet from becoming widely popular among home users in Germany, analysts have said.
Officials for both Mannesmann Arcor and Viag Interkom said their services were aimed particularly at novice users.
"Most people are afraid of high costs, and we intend to get people online with this offer," said Reinhard Scheiler, a spokesman for Viag Interkom.
"We're focusing in particular on customers afraid of making a commitment," said Christian Rogge, a spokesman for Mannesmann Arcor. "With our service, people can try [it] out first and see whether they like it," with no obligation to pay a monthly subscription fee.
The new services could lure customers away from established Internet providers, most notably Deutsche Telekom and AOL. With 2.3 million subscribers, Deutsche Telekom's T-Online is Germany's, and Europe's, largest online service by far. AOL Germany, a joint venture of media giant Bertelsmann and America Online, comes in second with 550,000 members.
