Currently the Deutsche Telecom is still controlled by the German government. The government owns 30.9 % of the company (1) and with the Regulierungsbehörde (english: regulation administration) it controls the telecommunication market, as it isn't really a market, at least for normal telephone services. The Telekom's competitors have round about 1.5 % market share (2) (actually the Telekom has more lines than there are households in Germany). Other telecommunication sectors aren't that influenced by the Telekom, but it still is a major player in them. The mobile phone market in Germany is shared by four big companies: D1 (Telekom), D2(Vodaphone), E1 (E-Plus) and E2(Viag Intercom), but the D1 net is the biggest one with 19 million customers (3) (of 48 million in total (2)). The Telekom is the former owner of the German cable net, too. But it had to sell it, because controlling the normal telephone service and cable service made it nearly impossible for other companies to provide high speed internet access and because the Telekom neglected cable service as it could have been a rival for its DSL service TDSL. The Telekom sold cable service to three different companies: Callahan, Liberty Media and E-Kabel (4).

T-Online, Germany's biggest ISP, is a subsidiary of the Telekom and provides Internet access for 6.5 million Germans (3). Though most of these are modem or ISDN users, the Telekom is also the biggest high speed internet connection provider in Germany with 620000 customers (3, but numbers are outdated) via DSL.

The Telekom (short for Deutsche Telekom Aktien Gesellschaft (DTAG)) was founded 1989 as the German post service got reformed and partly privatized (still in progress). In the beginning the company was called "Deutsche Bundespost Telekom" but since 1.1.1995 it is a Aktiengesellschaft. Since November 1996 the Telekom is a member of the DAX and a big part of their stocks are in free float.

But the Telekom is not only a big player on the German market, but also one of the strongest telecommunication companies europe- and world-wide owning companies(sometimes partly, but sadly I did not find any information about the correct numbers) like Voicestream, Powertel, One 2 One or Ya.com and having branches in most European countries.
One of the more amusing facts: The Telekom is one of the 6 "companies" (mostly more than one company formed a syndicate), which bought the highly overpriced German UMTS licences during an auction for 16.5 billion DM from the German government. So the government buys for its own licences. That's what happens when mixing free market with planned econonmy.

sources: (1): http://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Anlage4836/Privatisierung-von-Bundesunternehmen.pdf
(2): http://www.regtp.de/service/start/fs_02.html
(3): http://www.telekom.de/untern/inv_relations/gesch_zahlen/statistik/index.htm
(4): http://www.digitv.de/kabel/kabelvekauf.shtml
Der Brockhaus - In fünfzehn Bänden, Brockhaus GmBH, Leipzig-Mannheim, 1997

Leading German professional cycling team, operating (under slight variations on the name - Deutsche Telekom, Team Deutsche Telekom and currently Team Telekom) since the early 1990s, as an advertising vehicle for the then newly privatised telco and various of its products. The team management is in the hands (both financial and sporting) of former Belgian rider Walter Godefroot.

For most of the team's existence it has been the sole team of international standing based in Germany, which has always been a second-string cycling nation. The most prominent rider in the early years of the team was sprinter Olaf Ludwig, who was however fading from his previous green jersey winning form. The team moved up into the big time in 1996 when Dane Bjårne Riis won the Tour de France after five years of domination by Miguel Indurain; second behind Riis was his young German teammate Jan Ullrich who was to go on to win in 1997. Since that time the team has basically been built around the talents of Ullrich and sprinter turned classics winner Erik Zabel. Ullrich's has become an eternal second in the Tour, (beaten by Marco Pantani in 1998 and Lance Armstrong) ever since, but Zabel has amde up in part with a record six Tour green jerseys as well as the UCI World Cup in 2000 and the Milano-Sanremo classic in four consecutive years to 2001. The team also pulled off something of a coup in 2000 when Telekom riders (riding ostensibly for their national teams) took all three medals in the road race at the Sydney Olympic Games; Ullrich also took gold in the time trial there.

Team lineup for the 2002 season (German unless indicated)

Update July 1, 2003: After Jan Ullrich, already sidelined by injury, failed an out-of-competition dope test for (apparently recreational) amphetamine use in 2002, his contract was not renewed, leaving the team to focus on Wesemann, Vinokourov and Zabel for the 2003 season.

UCI team code: TEL
Team homepage: http://www.teamtelekom.de

Update December 2007: the team (which had in the interim been rechristened T-Mobile (TMO) after Deutsche Telekom's international mobile brand) finally lost its sponsor at the end of the 2007 season following a string of high-profile doping cases involving current and former riders including Jan Ullrich, Erik Zabel, Bjårne Riis and Patrick Sinkewitz.

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