After several years of near exponential growth, the party in Germany's mobile sector has given way to a new sense of realism. While progress in Germany's fixed-line sector has been beset by frustration, the country's mobile sector is looking much healthier. However, as the market approached saturation, growth in 2001 was much slower than that recorded in 2000―while the daunting challenge of 3G telephony has cast a long shadow across operator balance sheets. At the end of 2001, Germany had a total of 56.2m mobile users―a 17.2% increase on the corresponding figure a year earlier. Last year saw DT's cellular arm―since last month known as 'T-Mobile Germany'―take over market leadership from Vodafone, ending the year with 23.1m customers. This is an increase of 4m―or 48.2% of all new business last year. Vodafone had 21.9m customers at the tear's end.
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