BREKO member company Deutsche Glasfaser and Deutsche Telekom announced today that they will cooperate with each other for the first time as part of a pilot project. Dirk Wössner (CEO, Telekom Deutschland) and Uwe Nickl (Managing Director, Deutsche Glasfaser) have signed a letter of intent to this effect.
As part of the pilot project, Deutsche Telekom is using Deutsche Glasfaser’s fiber optic network in Lüdinghausen (North Rhine-Westphalia) to offer its product portfolio to private households and businesses. In future, citizens and businesses in Lüdinghausen will have the choice between two providers with different offerings via Deutsche Glasfaser’s fiber optic network. Based on the experience in Lüdinghausen, the two companies want to examine further fiber optic cooperation projects.
BREKO views the cooperation between Deutsche Glasfaser and Deutsche Telekom positively: “This is a win-win constellation for everyone involved and another strong signal that fiber optic expansion is really picking up speed. In this way, customers have a choice between different providers and the expansion of future-proof fiber optic connections to buildings and homes will be further advanced through the increased use of already built fiber optic networks,” says BREKO Managing Director Dr. Stephan Albers. “It is absolutely logical for providers to work together on fiber optic expansion and for large players in particular to use the future-proof fiber optic networks based on ‘open access’ to supply their customers. BREKO has a clear motto: open access instead of economically senseless double expansion.”
Deutsche Telekom already uses the network infrastructure of BREKO member companies such as R-KOM (Regensburg), süc/dacor (Coburg), SWU Telenet (Ulm) and Telepark Passau to offer its products to households and companies in the relevant regions.
Association Managing Director Albers predicts: “2020 will be a real fiber optic year. It’s going to go from strength to strength, and we will see a large number of further partnership-based expansion projects and a significant boost in fiber optic expansion this year in addition to the already known cooperations.”
The leading German fiber optic association is clearly focusing on its own commercial expansion. The fiber optic expansion business model is booming and is becoming increasingly attractive for financial investors. It is not without reason that Deutsche Glasfaser significantly expanded its financing framework just a few days ago. In November 2019, infrastructure investor EQT acquired BREKO member company Inexio for around EUR 1 billion. In the recent past, financial investors have also invested in regionally active BREKO network operators such as BBV, goetel, NDIX and Titan Networks, which are also pushing ahead with the expansion of fiber optics to buildings and homes.
“The momentum of market-driven, self-service fiber optic expansion continues to increase. In this situation, politicians must not make the mistake of flooding the market with further billions in subsidies and thus stifling the roll-out of self-service fiber optics. The so-called ‘grey-spot funding’ planned by the Federal Ministry of Transport must be implemented moderately and provide for clear prioritization in favour of areas with particularly poor coverage,” emphasizes Dr. Stephan Albers.