In a fire letter to Digital Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), competitors of Deutsche Telekom warn of the consequences of uncoordinated fiber optic expansion in Germany. In the letter, the broadband associations Anga, Breko, Buglas and VATM as well as the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU) accuse the partially state-owned Deutsche Telekom of using “strategic maneuvers” to slow down fiber optic expansion and thus endanger the federal government’s broadband expansion goals.
The associations complain that Telekom is competing with the existing fiber optic networks of competitors with its own lines or is unsettling local residents with vague expansion announcements. Networks from Telekom competitors that have been in the planning for some time are also affected. With this action, Telekom is destroying the business plans of the expanding companies and thwarting their expansion activities: “Communities are left behind, which are often only partially expanded by Telekom in the end, and citizens without a fiber optic connection”.
Telekom, which for years has primarily focused on optimizing existing copper lines, has recently been pushing ahead with the expansion of its fixed network offering with fiber optic lines. This year alone he is aiming for three million households that can be connected, said CEO Tim Höttges in February. With the rapid expansion, however, the accusation that Telekom is planning or building lines, although it has access to the lines of the competition, is repeatedly raised.
Telekom: Only one percent superstructure
Telekom manager Thilo Höllen, who is responsible for the group’s broadband cooperation, always rejects the allegations. The so-called superstructure accounts for only a fraction of the network expansion in Germany, Höllen wrote in a guest article by the Tagesspiegel Background industry service. In 2022, the superstructure at Telekom was less than one percent.
Telekom’s competitors, on the other hand, are calling on the federal government, as the major shareholder of Deutsche Telekom, to put its 30 percent stake in the former state-owned company on the balance and persuade Telekom management to change course with the fiber optic superstructure.
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Earlier this year, Internet service provider Liberty Global failed in its attempt to return to Germany. The group sent its German FTTH subsidiary Hellofiber into bankruptcy, which means that there will be no fiber optics from Liberty Global. FTTH stands for Fiber to the Home, i.e. fiber optic connections right into the end customer’s house or apartment.
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