The giant European telecoms operator, Deutsche Telekom (DT), is to integrate its fixed and mobile businesses for retail customers in Germany. This move is likely to be announced when the company publishes its quarterly results at the end of this week, and will be positioned as the company ‘streamlining its portfolio' by bundling fixed and mobile services with Internet access and web TV.
Insiders believe--accepting that DTs fixed-line business cannot survive alone--existing CEO of T-Mobile, Hamid Akhavan, will take over as COO of the merged company, while also retaining responsibility for T-Mobile International. It would appear T-Mobile operations outside Germany will continue as normal, although ‘streamlining' can have wide-reaching effects.
The current CEO of DT, Rene Obermann--the ex-head of T-Mobile, already has combined sales and distribution into what the company calls Sales & Service in an effort to stop subscriber losses and improve its customer service levels.
Company sources claim there will be no job cuts as a result of this move--which is surprising--with only management positions being reshuffled. However, given the commercial pressures facing telcos today it would appear unlikely this will remain the situation.
For more on this story:
TMC.net and AFP
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