The Deutsche Bundespost Federal Posts and Telecommunications Agency, a public holding company, coordinates the work of the three enterprises and their approximately 550,000 employees in an advisory capacity. It is not, however, permitted to interfere in their entrepreneurial activities.

A Regulatory Council has also been constituted, an independent institution at the Federal Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications that is responsible for ensuring fulfillment of the Federation’s duty to guarantee appropriate and adequate postal and telecommunications services throughout the country, a duty that for the first time has been laid down in the Basic Law, the German constitution. The Regulatory Council is composed of 1 6 representatives of the German Bundestag and one representative of each of the federal states. The Federal Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications will be dissolved at the end of 1 997.