Deutsche Telekom says “it’s time to put a few things right”
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Deutsche Telekom says “it’s time to put a few things right”

In a hard-hitting online blog post, Deutsche Telekom has discussed ten key areas of its current broadband build-out in Germany, a topic it has recently come under scrutiny from in the media.

According to DT, the main issue surrounding the recent media criticism is “tunnel vision”, as commentators focus solely on optical fibre as the solution, missing the real purpose of the project which is to provide as many people as possible with high speed broadband, as quickly and effectively as possible. The company says it would be “impossible” to roll out fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) across Germany, due to cost, time and building constraints.

“If we are fixated on FTTH, those in the countryside will remain left behind for years,” the company added.

It goes on to stress that Germany is a leading European country on broadband connectivity, with a coverage level of more than 80%. In addition the company invests more than €4 billion a year in infrastructure, and has connected an extra three million households in this year alone.

Also, in its mobile network coverage Germany is also among the top, achieving average speeds of 24.1 Mbps in addition to the highest LTE coverage in the region, says Deutsche Telekom.

Instead of fibre the company said it is focused on vectoring, as “it is the only way to provide people in rural areas with faster lines, quickly”. Vectoring involves fibre being laid as far as the cable distributors, with copper being used for the last few hundred metres.  

It also has partnerships with NetCologne, Innogy and EWE in an attempt to create collaboration within the build-out sector, saying: “No company is capable of building out Germany's fibre network on its own”. It adds: “Competition in infrastructure is required”.

DT says it hard at work building out its fixed and mobile networks in preparation for 5G and the internet of things, commenting “and while we're hard at work building, others just sit back and bellyache”. 

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