ABSTRACT
In Germany, the future Telekom's telephone services must be a main source for financing social, infrastructural, and financial obligations. A monopoly in the service market, including telephony or basic services, is not compatible with network competition; however, the telephony monopoly allows for exemptions from the network monopoly. The commission's members should and did reflect vested interests in the telecommunications policy debates and all political parties. The political reform package in Germany is larger than that in other western countries with telecommunications policies. The governmental commission on telecommunications somehow has been a typical German commission with regard to its structure and mandate. The mandate was not only to develop a consistent new model for structuring the telecommunications market, but also to discover the opinions of social groups with special interest in that area and to factor these opinions into their recommendations.
