Hamburg - Telecom Italia doubled the sales of its main German unit, HanseNet, last year to 1.1 billion euros (1.6 billion dollars) last year as it continued to prise away phone customers from former monopoly Deutsche Telekom. The Italian company has eaten heavily into its German counterpart's business, having signed up 2.35 million German homes and offices for its combined ADSL broadband internet and telephone service as of the end of 2007.
Though Deutsche Telekom has struggled to match Italia's lower prices, the HanseNet unit said Friday in Hamburg its earnings before interest, taxes and amortization (EBITDA) had risen from 145 million euros in 2006 to 281 million euros last year.
Chief executive Harald Roesch said HanseNet had established itself in the leading echelon of German broadband companies and was continuing to grow.
