Deutsche Telekom Hit By ISP Flat Fee   By Kate Norton at Bloomberg News 16 June 1999   Deutsche Telekom AG, Europe's largest phone company, must charge a flat fee of 2.6 pfennig per minute to all Internet service providers using its network to ensure fair competition in Europe's largest Internet market, Germany's phone regulator said. The decision follows complaints from several Internet service providers that Telekom was unfairly using revenue from its phone service to subsidize its T-Online Internet service, Europe's largest. "With this decision, the regulator is ensuring low, discrimination-free prices, and therefore, a diversity of providers, in the most important market of the future," the German regulator said in a statement. America Online Inc., the world's No. 1 Internet service provider, has been among those lobbying for phone companies in Europe to lower call charges in a bid to reduce the cost of Internet access and increase its usage. Deutsche Telekom is also being investigated by European Union regulators on whether it is using its power to suppress competition in Europe's Internet market. The $950 million German Internet access market is the largest in Europe, accounting for 40 percent of Europe's revenue in access fees, according to research firm Datamonitor Plc. Because most of Germany's 1,000 Internet service providers aren't affiliated with phone companies and don't have their own networks to deliver services, they rely on Deutsche Telekom's network to provide Internet access. Telekom currently charges fees of as much as 7.29 pfennig per minute for rivals to use its Internet network, though some receive a 20 percent rebate. Copyright 1999, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved. © EMAP Media 1999