Deutsche Telekom chief executive Mr Ron Sommer this week suggested its shares were undervalued at current levels. At around €41 the shares are trading well below their March 6th year-high of €104.90.

"I know what Deutsche Telekom is worth," he said. "A share price of €41 shows that we are a strongly undervalued company but I'm not unsettled by that. I'm sure we will come out of this valley," he said.

The stock has been weighed down by concerns about the cost of UMTS next generation mobile licences and the group's acquisition of US cellphone operator VoiceStream, currently valued at $37.6 billion. Deutsche Telekom has spent almost €16 billion on UMTS licences in Britain, the Netherlands and Germany.

Mr Sommer has defended the VoiceStream takeover, saying critics of the deal had come around to his view that the US market has large potential. He said Deutsche Telekom was planning on the takeover of VoiceStream, which is still awaiting full approval from US regulators, being closed at around the middle of 2001.