More than 189,000 more households in 194 German cities and communities are now able to connect to the internet at speeds of up to 100Mb/s (with a minimum of 50Mb/s) for downloads and of 40Mb/s for uploads, following a network expansion from operator, Deutsche Telekom.
The cities benefiting include Paderborn, with 13,500 households, Hagen, with 7,800, Bad Pyrmont with 6,700, Leonberg with 6,000, and Wolmirstedt with another 4,500 households. The aims to provide as many people as possible – spanning both cities and rural areas – with fast internet.
The project involves the replacement of existing copper lines running between local exchanges and street cabinets, with fibre-optic cables, to support higher transmission speeds. The existing distribution cabinets are being converted into multi-functional cabinets, serving as ‘mini-exchanges’. In these cabinets, the light signal coming from the fibre-optic line is converted into an electrical signal, and then fed into the existing copper cable leading to the subscriber's access. Vectoring technology is used to make the connection to the customer faster. By reducing electromagnetic interference in lines, vectoring is able to boost bandwidth significantly. As of the second half of 2018, ‘super-vectoring’ technology will be implemented, and this will enable bandwidths of up to 250Mb/s.
Deutsche Telekom’s CEO, Tim Höttges commented: ‘We aren't only building information superhighways between major metropolises and population centres; our network also extends to rural areas. We are the only company pursuing comprehensive broadband expansion. For us, every line counts. whether it’s in Bonn, Chemnitz and Mönchengladbach or in Blaustein, Kyritz und Winterbach.’ The next wave of FTTC commissioning is due to take place on 14 May.
Also under the incumbent’s broadband strategy is expansion in rural areas, following the first 423 nearshore areas (550m around local exchanges) going live, providing approximately 160,000 households in Brieskow-Finkenheerd, Dautphetal-Mornshausen, Waldfischbach-Burgalben, Schwabsoien and Wyk auf Föhr with download speeds of up to 100 Mb/s) and upload speeds of up to 40 Mb/s.
By early 2020 all of Germany's 7,600 ‘nearshore areas’ should have been modernised. Deutsche Telekom plans to lay almost 6,000 kilometres of optical fibre in approximately 7,200 nearshore areas, as well as installing more than 30,000 new multi-service access nodes. Around six million households will benefit from the roll-out. Each nearshore area covers an operating unit, the associated cable distribution boxes and customer lines. They are limited to a maximum cable length of 550m between the cable distribution box and the operating unit. Then there are the A0 lines. These are customer lines linked directly to the operating unit and not via the cable distribution box.
Says Walter Goldenits, chief technology officer at Telekom Deutschland: ‘The nearshore roll-out programme is a key part of our broadband strategy. That is why this successful start to the project is so important.’
Over the coming years Deutsche Telekom will also implement super vectoring in nearshore areas to enable speeds of up to 250 Mb/s.
