O.tel.o is now Germany's fourth-largest wireline phone company, after Deutsche Telekom, Mobilcom and Arcor.

FORBES: Ulrich Hartmann's second act

France Telecom has a 28.5 percent in MobilCom, a German mobile phone operator, through Orange.

CNN: Telecom operators: France Telecom

Mobilcom says it will shortly extend its flat-rate to calls inside continental Europe.

ECONOMIST: Deutsche Telekom

Late last year, it provoked a row between the French and German governments, when, amid mounting losses, it pulled out of Germany's Mobilcom.

BBC: ���� �ߧ�ӧ�����?: France Telecom job cuts

This March Mobilcom, a telecommunications company backed by 3i and the venture-capital subsidiary of Commerzbank, among others, became the first firm to list on Germany's new small-company stock exchange, the Neuer Markt.

ECONOMIST: Venture capital

Mobilcom, which charges a flat rate of DM0.19 a minute for long-distance calls in Germany (a third of Deutsche Telekom's peak rate), is so popular that most customers trying to reach its network find only a busy signal.

ECONOMIST: Deutsche Telekom