Deutsche Telekom last week claimed that it had won a German
court order requiring the removal of certain statements from the
German web site of AOL. According to Newsbytes, the statements
criticised Deutsche Telekom for forcing AOL to restrict its flat
rate internet access offers to 1,000 customers per week. The German
telco denies putting any such condition on AOL.
In a statement to Newsbytes, AOL explained that it could not
offer flat rate access to all customers because the costs were
inflated by Deutsche Telekom’s refusal to lower the price at which
it leases vital telephone lines connecting customers with AOL
internet lines. This section of telephone lines is referred to as
the “last mile”.
The AOL web site indicates that the company has been campaigning
for flat rate internet access for two years. Although Deutsche
Telekom has denied limiting the number of flat rate offers that AOL
can make to customers, the AOL web site continues to state that the
rates it is forced to pay for the last mile are about 125% higher
than the actual costs of running it.
