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1&1 AG
1&1 sells mobile phone and broadband internet services to homes and businesses in Germany.
1&1 is a German telecom company that sells mobile phone plans and home internet to ordinary people and small businesses. If you live in Germany and want a cheap SIM card or a DSL line, 1&1 is one of the names you'd see on the shelf alongside the big network operators. The company's pitch is simple: solid service at a lower price, sold mostly online and through its own shops rather than through heavy advertising.
The important thing to understand is that 1&1 historically did not own most of the network it sold. It was a "mobile virtual network operator," or MVNO — a reseller that buys wholesale access from other operators and puts its own brand and billing on top. For years its main wholesale partner was Telefónica, whose German network carried 1&1's mobile traffic. That model is capital-light and lets a company compete on price, but it also means your fate sits partly in a rival's hands. That is why 1&1 has been building its own mobile network, a big and expensive bet. It struck a deal with Japan's Rakuten to use Open RAN technology — essentially building a network from standard software and off-the-shelf hardware instead of locked-in proprietary gear. The rollout has been slow and costly, and in 2024 the company admitted its build was behind schedule and that it was negotiating with rivals about extra roaming. This matters because owning your own network flips the economics: huge upfront spending, but no wholesale fees and more control. The business now runs in two broad parts. There is the access business — mobile and broadband contracts sold under the 1&1 brand — and there is the wholesale and network side, which includes the new mobile network and deals to carry traffic for other providers. Its closest competitors are the three big German operators: Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, and Telefónica, all of which own networks and dwarf 1&1 in size. 1&1's edge is price and nimbleness; its weakness is that it must fund a network build while fighting giants.
The company sits inside the sprawling empire of German entrepreneur Ralph Dommermuth, who controls it through the holding company United Internet, and it was formerly known as 1&1 Drillisch. The drama to watch is straightforward: can it finish its own network before the costs and delays pile too high, and can it keep customers loyal while spending heavily to get there?
Saved answer · last researched 12 Nov 2026