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DT to invest €10 bn in broadband and services
29 Mar 2010 | 13.06 Europe/London
German’s incumbent operator, Deutsche Telekom (DT), is planning an investment of around €10 billion over three years in a modernisation programme designed to improve both fixed and mobile broadband and services.
The telco has announced that it will upgrade its mobile network, invest in fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), and beef up IT processes “to give customers more speed and new products”, although it hasn’t specified how the money will be divided up.
The aim is to supply up to 4 million of all households in Germany through fibre by 2012 – that’s about 10 percent of the total. In addition, the mobile data network will be upgraded with HSPA+ and – if the frequency is awarded – Long Term Evolution (LTE).
The motivation? The giant operator hopes to boost its bottom line by doubling its revenues from internet services. It wants to add 3 million more IPTV customers by 2015, and increase revenues from network services supplied to the energy, healthcare, media and automotive industry sectors. Revenue from mobile data traffic is also projected to increase from just under €4 billion in 2009, to around €6 billion by 2012 and €10 billion by 2015.
On the fibre access front, this appears to mark a significant change in strategy for the German incumbent, which has previously favoured VDSL technology. The operator has rolled out fibre-to-the-cabinet network in 50 cities using VDSL over copper to bridge the final connection from the street cabinet to the home. A company spokesperson said the operator believed there would be “an enormous demand for bandwidth in the future”, but did not know how the operator’s VDSL strategy would be affected.
The FTTH expansion will start with a pilot project in Dresden by the fourth quarter of 2010, but the operator has not decided which other cities will being targeted for FTTH deployment.
Parts of Dresden already have VDSL and there also appear to be communities in Dresden that never received any kind of broadband because they had been fitted with fibre-based telephony equipment back in the mid-1990s (ADSL only works over copper cable). It is possible that the pre-existence of fibre loops in these areas will make them more attractive locations for rolling out modern FTTH.
The telco has announced that it will upgrade its mobile network, invest in fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), and beef up IT processes “to give customers more speed and new products”, although it hasn’t specified how the money will be divided up.
The aim is to supply up to 4 million of all households in Germany through fibre by 2012 – that’s about 10 percent of the total. In addition, the mobile data network will be upgraded with HSPA+ and – if the frequency is awarded – Long Term Evolution (LTE).
The motivation? The giant operator hopes to boost its bottom line by doubling its revenues from internet services. It wants to add 3 million more IPTV customers by 2015, and increase revenues from network services supplied to the energy, healthcare, media and automotive industry sectors. Revenue from mobile data traffic is also projected to increase from just under €4 billion in 2009, to around €6 billion by 2012 and €10 billion by 2015.
On the fibre access front, this appears to mark a significant change in strategy for the German incumbent, which has previously favoured VDSL technology. The operator has rolled out fibre-to-the-cabinet network in 50 cities using VDSL over copper to bridge the final connection from the street cabinet to the home. A company spokesperson said the operator believed there would be “an enormous demand for bandwidth in the future”, but did not know how the operator’s VDSL strategy would be affected.
The FTTH expansion will start with a pilot project in Dresden by the fourth quarter of 2010, but the operator has not decided which other cities will being targeted for FTTH deployment.
Parts of Dresden already have VDSL and there also appear to be communities in Dresden that never received any kind of broadband because they had been fitted with fibre-based telephony equipment back in the mid-1990s (ADSL only works over copper cable). It is possible that the pre-existence of fibre loops in these areas will make them more attractive locations for rolling out modern FTTH.