Bonn/Berlin, 09.11.2021

Dr. Stephan Albers, Managing Director of the German Broadband Association (BREKO), comments on Deutsche Telekom’s plans to connect an additional four million households to the fibre-optic network by 2028 with the new joint venture Glasfaser Plus:

“It is a good sign for fiber optic expansion in Germany that Deutsche Telekom is also acquiring additional financial resources in order to keep up the pace of expansion. Together with the investments of the alternative network operators, more than 40 billion euros will be available for the self-funded expansion of fiber optic networks over the next few years. This increasingly puts the need for large-scale funding programs into perspective. Against this backdrop, calls to increase the existing ‘gray-spot funding’ once again miss the mark. What we need instead is a funding policy from the next German government that aims to supplement market-driven expansion in a well-dosed and targeted manner with state funding where there is no potential for this.

More than 80 percent of German households and companies are not yet connected to the fiber optic network. So there is enough space for everyone. Overbuilding existing infrastructure is neither necessary nor economically sensible. It is important that Deutsche Telekom keeps its promises: that it opens up its networks and in return also uses existing fiber optic infrastructure from competitors instead of building over it. Competitors are responsible for 75 percent of the fiber optic connections implemented and therefore continue to be the drivers of expansion. These companies clearly stand for cooperation. If this cooperation is not a one-way street for Telekom, everyone can win in the fiber optic expansion.”