On July 1, 1992, Telekom finally invited customers to the official launch of its D1 network. Mannesmann Mobilfunk originally wanted to start broadcasting two weeks later. However, in a PR coup, the D2 launch was spontaneously brought forward to June 30, 1992 in order to be one day ahead of its competitor Telekom in the history books. At that time, "D2-Privat" was not even able to sell its customers any cell phones. The first D2 customer came from Bochum and had previously bought one of the first "cell phones" based on the GSM standard, an Ericsson GH-172, in an electronics store.

However, the legendary "bone", the Motorola International 3200, soon prevailed on the market. Tanja Richter, today's Head of Technology at Vodafone Germany, remembers: "The bulky phone weighed more than 500 grams, had a battery capacity for a maximum of 120 minutes of talk time and cost around DM 3,000. By the standards of the time, that was a small fortune." Richter began her career at Mannesmann Mobilfunk and joined Vodafone when the company was taken over in 2000.

From a DM 2 per minute price to a flat rate

Initially, only a few people in Germany shared the early enthusiasm for digital mobile telephony, partly because the prices were very steep. Telekom and Mannesmann started out with minute prices of just under 2 Deutschmarks, or around 1 euro today. The basic charge was more than 70 Deutschmarks. Today, flat rates cost only a fraction of that.

However, in April 1993, barely a year after the launch, there were already several hundred thousand subscribers on the two D-networks. And the growth could have been even more dynamic if only there had been enough cell phones. The head of technology at Mannesmann CTO at the time, Georg Schmitt, dissolved the abbreviation for the digital mobile communications standard GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) into the sigh "God send Mobiles!". However, cell phones did not fall from the sky, but had to be obtained from Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens and others.

The triumph of SMS

However, prices did fall. And a new service made cell phones attractive, especially for young people. We are talking about SMS (Short Message Service) with its 160 characters. The first SMS with the message "Merry Christmas" was sent to Vodafone employee Richard Jarvis on December 3, 1992. In 1994, Mannesmann and Telekom introduced SMS for their customers. Five years later, Germans were already sending around 3.6 billion text messages. The Duden dictionary admitted defeat and added the word "texting" to its vocabulary.

In 1999 alone, the number of mobile phone customers in Germany doubled to 48 million. Its success ultimately cost Mannesmann its independence: the British giant Vodafone took over the Düsseldorf-based company in 2000 after a defensive battle lasting several months at a price of 190 billion euros.

More mobile phone licenses, more providers

In the mid-1990s, two more mobile communications licenses were awarded in Germany - the e-networks were created with the providers E-Plus and Telefónica O2. E-Plus came under the umbrella of Telefónica in 2014, so that the duopoly of the early years has now developed into a neck-and-neck race between three providers. And with the auction of licenses for the fifth generation of mobile communications (5G) in 2019, a new player entered the stage with 1&1 Drillisch, which has not yet built its own network. The market as a whole is huge: last year, the number of mobile connections in Germany rose to 161 million, meaning that in purely mathematical terms, there are almost two connections for every person.

"Jesus Phone" - from cell phone to smartphone

The premiere of the iPhone in 2007 proved to be a decisive moment in the history of digital mobile communications. The first iPhone only worked on the comparatively lame EDGE network. However, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' "Jesus Phone" helped smartphones achieve their breakthrough with innovative functions and a new user interface. The iPhone also changed the balance of power - from the providers to the device manufacturers from the USA and Asia. The eternal duel between the iPhone and Google's Android operating system began with the first Samsung Galaxy in 2009 and continues to shape the smartphone world to this day.

New business models in demand

The success of free messengers such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Apple iMessage, Signal, Telegram, Line and Threema had an equally drastic effect on the business of mobile phone providers. They overtook SMS years ago and wiped out a billion-euro business.

As a result, mobile phone companies now have to look for commercial success not only in their core business, but also in other areas. After all, the web stores and retail outlets of Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica, which sell cell phones and the associated additional services such as cell phone insurance, are bringing in a lot of money.

At the same time, the providers are making a new attempt to get a fair share of the economic success of the large Internet companies. In a joint appeal in mid-February, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefónica and the French provider Orange called on the major platforms to cover some of the costs of the European digital infrastructure. Data traffic is increasing by up to 50% a year - and video streaming, games and social media account for over 70% of all data traffic. These platforms would benefit from highly scalable business models at low cost. However, it remains to be seen whether the providers will see any money from the major internet providers at some point.