Berlin/Bonn/Cologne, 11.04.2024 – The Federal Network Agency today published an interim report by the monitoring body on the recording of duplicate fiber-optic expansion projects. The German Broadband Association (BREKO) and the Association of Telecommunications and Value-Added Service Providers (VATM) comment on this:

The Federal Network Agency has given Telekom a disastrous report card. Instead of drawing the right conclusions from the facts available to it, however, the agency is exercising restraint – as apparently desired by the German government – and continuing to play for time. This reinforces the suspicion that the interests of Deutsche Telekom are being deliberately protected here – a company in which the federal government still holds more than 30 percent of the shares. This delaying tactic sends a fatal signal to the telecommunications market and to companies wishing to invest in fiber optic networks.

The facts are on the table more than nine months after the establishment of the monitoring body: according to the report, in the majority of reported cases of dual expansion, Telekom has limited itself to particularly lucrative core areas and, which is also particularly critical, has reacted quickly to expansion decisions by competitors. According to the report, in around 20 percent of the cases affected by a telecoms dual expansion, there was even a complete or partial withdrawal of competitors. Telekom’s predatory tactics are just as clearly documented as the negative effects on fiber optic expansion.

Nevertheless, the Federal Network Agency is stepping on the brakes and wants to obtain “more detailed information” about Telekom’s expansion and planning activities first. The absurd thing is that this would be achieved by imposing reporting obligations on Telekom – a measure that was already mentioned in October 2023 in a report by WIK-Consult on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport in order to identify strategic behavior. BREKO and VATM have also long been calling for Telekom to be obliged to enter its fiber optic expansion plans in a non-public expansion list nine months in advance.

Against this backdrop, the German government’s behavior is a farce. Instead of taking measures to stop the strategically destructive behavior of the market-powerful company and promote fair competition, the traffic light coalition is recklessly jeopardizing its goals for the expansion of fiber optics.