A senior executive at T-Online International, Deutsche Telekom's net service provider, yesterday defended its decision to set a lower price range for the company's flotation.

In the wake of the battering suffered by technology stocks in Europe and the US recently, T-Online is pricing the sale of a 10% stake at between 26 and 32 euros a share, compared with initial market expectations of 35 to 50 euros.

At the top of the indicated price range T-Online would be valued at just over 30bn euros.

Yesterday Wolfgang Keuntje, chairman of the managing board, said it would be for investors to determine whether the price was high or low.

"We believe [the range] is fair," he said. The flotation was not aimed at wringing the last euro from the offer for sale but to provide T-Online with a public listing which would give it "the currency to make acquisitions".

Mr Keuntje said the industry was in a "consolidation phase" and argued that that would provide more opportunities for acquisitions than at a time when valuations were higher.

T-Online claims to be Europe's biggest ISP with some 4.7m customers in Germany and, despite the recent shake-out among hi-tech markets, there are indications that the issue is likely to prove popular.

According to a recent survey in Börse Online magazine, one in five Germans is planning to buy T-Online shares.

Interest in the sector climbed again yesterday when freenet.de - Germany's third largest ISP - said that France Telecom might buy a stake.

The French company - arch-rival of Deutsche Telekom since the collapse of their alliance when the German group sought to acquire Telecom Italia - is France's biggest ISP through its Wanadoo subsidiary. Last month it bought 28.5% of freenet.de's parent company, Mobilcom.

The buy, underlining the increasingly international nature of competition in Europe, benefited as freenet.de's shares climbed by almost a fifth in value yesterday.