In the area of mobile telecommunications, too, Deutsche Telekom AG is meeting its D network competitor Mannesmann Mobilfunk head on with “D2 Privat”. Deutsche Telekom AG faces increasingly stiff competition in the E network from “E1″ provided by E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH (Thyssen, VEBA, BellSouth and Vodafone) and “E2″ provided by E2 Mobilfunk (VIAG, British Telecom and Telenor). There are presently about five million participants in the digital mobile communications networks in Germany and the number continues to climb swiftly, making the telecommunications market one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the German economy.