FRANKFURT, April 15 (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom followed its three main rivals and revised its German mobilecharges on Monday as the turf war intensifies Europe's biggestnational market.
KPN's E-Plus, Vodafone Germany andTelefonica Germany's O2 have already changed theirprices as German consumers catch up with the rest of thecontinent by switching to smartphones from basic mobiles.
Deutsche Telekom said it would offer customers who alreadyown a mobile device a 20 percent discount and add free dataaccess to all packages.
From May 22, it will raise prices at the low end of itsrange, upgrade mid-range packages, cut prices on high-endmobiles and offer unlimited voice and text services from 49.95euros ($65) per month to 99.95 euros.
"Compared with Vodafone, we believe Deutsche Telekom is nowvery competitive, in particular in the mid-range, which couldwell inspire a response," said Jefferies analysts in a note toclients.
Until only a few months ago Germany was seen as a haven ofgrowth and high margins in a sector struggling to grow inFrance, Britain, Spain and Italy because of regulatory pressure,price wars and recession.
Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone are Germany's largest mobileplayers, each taking 34 percent of 2012 mobile services revenuesfrom about 114 million mobile subscribers, while KPN andTelefonica Deutschland share about 32 percent.
Vodafone (VOD)