Swisscom, Switzerland's national telephone utility, is paying a total of SFr3.5 billion (€2.17 billion) for a near 80 per cent stake in Debitel, Germany's third-largest mobile phone company.

The deal will double Swisscom's customer base to seven million and give it a significant presence in the fastest-growing segment of Europe's biggest telecoms market.

Debitel, founded eight years ago with a staff of five, has grown into Europe's biggest independent network service provider with 8,000 outlets. Sales have nearly doubled over the past two years to 2.9 billion deutschmarks ($1.48 billion) and net profits have risen sharply to DM46m. However, this rapid growth has been overshadowed by an unsuccessful stock market flotation of 20 per cent of its shares in March.