John Blau

KPMG Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft AG is on track to sell its strategic IT consulting business in the German-speaking region of Europe before the end of June. But the Berlin company remains tight lipped about who the buyer could be.

The German government has no intention of changing conditions for next-generation mobile Internet licenses, despite pleas from several operators to do so, a senior official confirmed on Friday. The clear "nein" comes one day after European mobile operators, including representatives from German companies, met with officials from the European Commission in Brussels to discuss, among other things, measures to ease consolidation in the troubled 3G (third-generation) market.

Walldorf, Germany, e-business software vendor SAP AG announced on Thursday the appointment of European sales veteran Leo Apotheker as president of Global Field Operations. In the newly created position, Apotheker will be responsible for global sales.

European mobile operators, after spending billions on licenses for next-generation mobile Internet services, have another worry: public access wireless LAN (WLAN).

The German state government of North Rhine Westphalia has acknowledged difficulties in finding a software solution to filtering neo-Nazi content. The government confirmed on Friday that its efforts so far have produced no results and that it will decide within the next four weeks whether to honour complaints filed by 38 Internet service providers opposing the Web site censorship.

The German state government of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) plans a new law that would give criminal investigators in the state greater rights to monitor voice and data services provided by communication companies, and obtain personal data from companies such as banks and airlines, the state Justice Ministry announced on Wednesday.

German banks are reluctant to partner with mobile-telecommunication companies to provide mobile-payment solutions, according to a study published Wednesday by Mummert + Partner Unternehmensberatung AG. Only 28 per cent of the 100 banks surveyed say they intend to cooperate with mobile-phone operators within the next three years.

Soon Germans will need to find an excuse why they don't have a high-speed Internet connection. Not only does Germany boast the most line-based Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connections in Europe, the country also is poised to take the lead in the rollout of broadband services provided over satellites.