Deutsche Telekom outlines FTTH, LTE plans

Deutsche Telekom used the CeBIT show in Hanover, Germany, as a platform to discuss its plans for next-generation fiber to the home (FTTH) and LTE wireless network expansions. As many as 160,000 households in 10 German cities will be connected via FTTH this year, Deutsche Telekom says. The German carrier asserts its network upgrades will enable downstream speeds of 1 Gbps and upstream speeds of 500 Mbps.

"Our decision to expand the fiber-optic network in Germany proves our commitment to our home market. With today’s launch of the expansion program, we are systematically executing our strategy," said Niek Jan van Damme, the member of the Board of Management at Deutsche Telekom AG responsible for business in Germany, on February 28. "Only through an intelligent mixture of technologies from wireless and landline networks can we offer our customers fast connections, high quality and attractive prices."

“Selected districts” within the cities of Braunschweig, Brühl, Hanover, Hennigsdorf, Neu-Isenburg, Kornwestheim, Mettmann, Offenburg, Potsdam, and Rastatt will see FTTH connections this year, Deutsche Telekom announced.

Echoing other Tier 1 carriers in Europe (and elsewhere for that matter), van Damme cited a friendly regulatory environment as essential to the success of the planned roll out. "It must be possible to use all existing infrastructure, such as cable conduits from other grid industries or even building networks, to save costs and capture synergy potential. We also have to avoid a patchwork of local fiber-optic networks in Germany, which means the industry has to agree to mutual, open network access," he said.

Meanwhile, the company says its overall expansion philosophy envisions a combination of technologies that matches fiber optics and copper lines with broadband wireless technologies such as HSPA+, LTE, and WLANs.

Along these lines, Deutsche Telekom deployed added the first LTE mobile base station in Germany to its network, in Kyritz in Brandenburg, last August. In addition, in the past year the company boosted large parts of its HSPA/UMTS network to a top speed of 21 Mbps, while increasing coverage by more than 10 percent, now reaching 83 percent of the population. Marketing of the matching data rates will begin in the second quarter.

Deutsche Telekom will expand its HSPA/UMTS network further in 2011, doubling available bandwidth in the entire network to up to 42 Mbpss by the end of the year. Even more speed is promised by LTE technology, based on 1.8 and 2.6 GHz frequency bands. The target is up to 100 Mbit/s. This new technology will be provided to selected business customers in the early summer of 2011 on a test basis. In addition, Cologne will receive near-total LTE coverage, based on the 1.8 and 2.6 GHz frequency bands, and made available to consumers. The LTE stick from Huawei is the first 4G device Deutsche Telekom will employ.

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