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German alternative broadband provider QSC has announced a partnership with multiple service provider debitel to market a DSL product, expanding into DSL 2+ as QSC rolls out a network expansion. Swisscom sold debitel to Permira in the middle of last year, and the most recent official data I have on it is from the end of 2003, when debitel had 7.9m mobile and 350k internet subs in Germany, out of a European total of 10.3m (today's press release states 10.6m customers throughout Europe, and over 8m in Germany). In any event, debitel has an extremely well-known brand in Germany, is a very significant player in the mobile market, and is already present in DSL. The company has a network of national shops and claims 6,500 marketing partners, so this could be a serious source of pressure in future.