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Private company

Debitel

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

German telecommunications company

Debitel AG was one of the largest mobile telephone services providers in Europe, offering a wide range of telecommunication products – mobile and land-line telephony as well internet services. At its peak, the business commanded a 47% market share of the mobile service provider market in Germany (its largest market) with 12.4% of the overall mobile telephone market as of 2004. The company boasted over 10.2 million customers of which 8.3 million were resident in Germany.2 It ceased to exist in 2011.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1991Founded1
  • HeadquartersStuttgart1
  • Legal formAktiengesellschaft1

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Stuttgart-Vaihingen STEP 6
Photo: Karlo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons5

Debitel AG was one of the largest mobile telephone services providers in Europe, offering a wide range of telecommunication products – mobile and land-line telephony as well internet services. At its peak, the business commanded a 47% market share of the mobile service provider market in Germany (its largest market) with 12.4% of the overall mobile telephone market as of 2004. The company boasted over 10.2 million customers of which 8.3 million were resident in Germany.2

Acquisitions

In June 2004, Permira, an international private equity firm, acquired Swisscom's 95% stake in Debitel.

In 2006 it was announced that Debitel would merge with _dug telecom AG, a German telecommunications company with 430 outlets of its own which had been founded in 1993 as a mobile telephone direct sales company called ‘Dittrich und Grella’.

Including the 1100 employees of _dug, by March 2008 the merged company employed 4000 people. In October 2008 the company owned 500 outlets in Germany, marketing what are known in Germany as 'tariff-based' products under the Debitel brand on behalf of network providers such as T-Mobile, E-Plus and O2. debitel also sold land-line services at this time for Deutsche Telekom's T-Home brand, Arcor, O2 DSL, Alice (a German brand owned by Telecom Italia) and Freenet.

In July 2007 Debitel was granted permission by the EU Commission to take over Elmshorn-based telecommunications company Talkline.

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Debitel subsequently consolidated the administration of the merged companies and downsized human resources leading to the loss of 700 jobs at Talkline and the announcement that Talkline operations would close entirely by 2010.

In April 2008, Freenet AG announced it would purchase Debitel from Permira including all liabilities for approx. 1.6 billion euros.

From Wikipedia’s article on Debitel, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. May 23, 2011Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1991Founded Founded1

Sources

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