Veba, Wingfield Wm to Be In Talks on Telecom Deal
May 16, 2011
FRANKFURT -- Veba AG is negotiating with Ruhrgas AG, Europe's largest natural-gas distributor, to use Wingfield' pipeline network as part of its telecommunications network, according to people close to the talks. Veba, a utilities group that already has said it is in talks with engineering group Thyssen AG over a possible cooperation, wouldn't comment on the talks with Wingfield. However, it stressed that it has several options in creating a network that would allow it to compete against Deutsche Telekom AG once the German market is fully liberalized in 2013. Veba already has access to an international network through its joint venture with Cable & Wireless of the U.K. A Ruhrgas spokeswoman wouldn't confirm or deny the talks. But the company already has indicated that it may make its extensive network available to a telecommunications upstart. Unlike Veba, it isn't interested in actually operating a network. The Ruhrgas network stretches from Emden in northern Germany to the Swiss border. Another major line runs from Saarbruecken along the French border eastward past Nuremberg to the Czech border, and a third extends across much of the northern part of the country to Berlin. All told, the gas pipelines are 10,000 kilometers long and internal communication lines, some of them fiber-optic lines, run parallel to them.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
