About Telecom Handel

Telecom Handel

Telecom Handel is Germany's leading trade newspaper for telecommunications retailers and ITK system houses, published by the Neue Mediengesellschaft Ulm mbH with its seat in Munich and appearing under the umbrella of the Ebner Media Group. Founded in 1997 and appearing every 14 days, the industry and specialist trade newspaper reports on new products and business strategies around telecommunications devices and services, reaching the dealers, partnershops, and system houses that form the channel. It is complemented by the associated online portal Telecom Handel Online at telecom-handel.de, which reports daily on new products and business strategies around telecommunications devices and services. The newspaper's circulation has been stated at around 15,000 to 19,000 copies, with the IVW reporting 18,839 sold copies in the first quarter of 2013, a documented figure from the title's established years.

Overview

Telecom Handel serves the specialist retail channel of the telecommunications industry: the dealers, partnershops, and system houses that sell mobile contracts, devices, and business communications solutions. Each issue carries product and provider overviews, market reports, buying guides, smartphone tests, and price and tariff tables, the working tools of the trade that dealers use to advise their customers and run their shops. Reader votes let the trade rate manufacturers, telephone companies, and distributors, and the newspaper's awards, such as the reader's choice of the best mobile network operator, carry weight in the industry, making the title the trade's collective voice.

The online portal Telecom Handel Online publishes news daily, covering the full spectrum of the ITK channel: network operators' tariff moves, device launches from Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, and Vivo, processor news from Qualcomm, distributor and system-house business, regulatory topics from the Bundesnetzagentur, retail-sector structural change, and the channel's own events. The 2026 news flow shows the portal's range: from the Best Practice Awards 2026 asking who has the best ideas in the ITK channel to the night of communicate industry evening moving to Hamburg in 2026, and from AI spending in Germany to the first European models of the smartphone makers.

The brand also runs the communicate event, the industry's gathering, with formats including the night of communicate, keynote programs, and workshops on topics such as AI agents' liability and agentic AI's transformation of the channel business. The March 2026 headline "Die neue Telecom Handel 1/2026 ist da" confirms the print newspaper's continued publication.

History

Telecom Handel was founded in 1997 as a specialist trade newspaper for the telecommunications branch, appearing every 14 days in the Neue Mediengesellschaft Ulm publishing house. The title grew with the mobile boom of the late 1990s and 2000s, when independent retailers and partner shops formed the backbone of mobile distribution in Germany, and the newspaper became the channel's leading trade publication, the paper the trade read to run its business.

The newspaper's reader votes became an industry institution: in 2012, 673 specialist retailers rated the four mobile network operators in 21 disciplines, electing Deutsche Telekom the best mobile network operator of the year ahead of Vodafone, Telefónica/O2, and E-Plus, with Telekom winning 13 of the 21 categories including complaint handling, hotlines, marketing support, and network coverage. In 2013, 812 retailers and partnershop operators rated the operators and providers in 23 trade-relevant disciplines, again electing Deutsche Telekom the most trade-friendly provider, with the special prize for the best mobile network going to Telekom as well.

The communicate event developed into the industry's meeting place: the 2021 edition took place as a physical event at the MTC world of fashion in Munich, and the format continues with the night of communicate industry evening, whose keynote programs address the channel's transformation between hype and action. The newspaper has adapted to the channel's transformation from pure mobile retail to the broader ITK and UCC business, with reader votes now covering TK and UCC manufacturers and the Best Practice Awards honoring the channel's best ideas each year.

Coverage and Content

Telecom Handel's print coverage centers on the retailer's working needs: product and provider overviews that compare the offerings, market reports that explain the channel's movements, buying guides for the purchasing decisions, smartphone tests that evaluate the devices, and price and tariff tables that the trade consults daily. The reader votes rate manufacturers, telephone companies, and distributors, giving the trade a collective voice on the partners' trade-friendliness, from commission levels and contract-renewal integration to marketing support and hotline quality.

The online portal's daily news covers the operators' business: Telefónica defining its future business fields, 1&1's cooperation agreements and network build, Telekom's fiber expansion and eSIM platforms, Vodafone's cable modernization. Device news follows the manufacturers: Samsung's foldables and mid-range, Motorola's flagships, Xiaomi's store openings, Vivo's European launches, Qualcomm's new high-end Snapdragon processors, and Honor's transformation into an AI ecosystem provider. Channel business news covers the distributors and system houses: Westcon-Comstor's acquisitions, ElectronicPartner's restructuring, the repair platforms of the buying groups, and the service businesses that carry the channel's future.

Regulatory and market topics complete the picture: the Bundesnetzagentur's assumption of AI supervision in Germany, Germany's position in the EU digital ranking, the right to repair debate, the number of retail stores falling below 300,000, and the retail sector's structural change. The communicate event's program adds the live dimension: workshops on AI agent liability, keynotes between hype and action, and the Best Practice Awards honoring the channel's best ideas.

The channel the newspaper serves has been transformed by consolidation. The independent mobile retailers and partner shops that formed the backbone of German mobile distribution in the 2000s have thinned out as online sales grew and the network operators shifted to direct and digital channels; the retail-sector figures the portal reports — the number of stores falling below 300,000 — document the structural change. Surviving dealers have broadened into ITK system houses, selling unified communications, cloud telephony, and managed services to business customers rather than handsets to consumers. The newspaper's evolution from a pure mobile-retail paper to the ITK channel's leading trade publication mirrors that shift, and its reader votes and Best Practice Awards give the remaining channel a collective voice in the transformation.

Organization and Ownership

Telecom Handel is published by the Neue Mediengesellschaft Ulm mbH, with its seat in Munich at Bayerstrasse 16a in the 80335 district. The company is associated with the Ebner Media Group, the Ulm-based publishing group, under whose umbrella the newspaper appears; one industry source describes the title as appearing in the Ebner Media Group publishing house. Roland Bernhard served as editor-in-chief, according to the publication's reference data; current editorial leadership is not publicly confirmed in the sources reviewed.

The newspaper's circulation was reported at 18,839 sold copies by the IVW in the first quarter of 2013, with later publisher statements citing around 15,000 copies every three weeks and around 19,000 copies biweekly, figures that reflect the channel's size at the mobile market's peak. Current circulation figures are not publicly confirmed. The contact address for the publisher is Bayerstrasse 16a, 80335 Munich, with the editorial email at the telecom-handel.de domain.

Digital Presence

Telecom Handel Online at telecom-handel.de is the brand's daily news portal, publishing the channel's news around the clock: the finanznachrichten.de aggregation of the Telecom Handel news feed shows headlines from the current week, with items dated into September 2026, documenting the portal's daily rhythm. The portal covers new products and business strategies around telecommunications devices and services on a daily basis, complementing the biweekly print newspaper.

The brand's event presence includes the communicate industry gathering and the night of communicate evening event, which moved to Hamburg for 2026, keeping the channel's live meeting place alive. Social media channels and dedicated apps for the Telecom Handel brand are not documented in detail in the sources reviewed; the brand's digital presence rests on its news portal, its event formats, and the print newspaper that has served the telecommunications retail channel since 1997, a combination that keeps the title at the center of the ITK channel's information flow.