Telekom Germany CEO on 5G and fiber goals

Telekom Germany CEO Srini Gopalan and Walter Goldenits, Head of Technology, have shared their goals and achievements.
Deutsche Telekom brandDeutsche Telekom plans to significantly increase the pace of its fiber rollout in the coming year aiming to add 2.5 to 3 million connections.

Telekom’s fiber team aims to achieve the goal of offering FTTH connections to an additional 2 million households and businesses this year, Telekom Germany CEO Srini Gopalan said at the company’s Network Day in Bonn. Telekom will increase its fiber reach to 5.2 million connections by the end of 2022, and more than 10 million connections by 2024.

“We have built more fiber this year than all other competitors combined. In the second phase, we will bring even more fiber even faster to our customers. It’s all about growth and scaling,” Srini Gopalan said.

Telekom’s 5G coverage reached 94 percent of people in Germany — three years after launch.

Telekom is working with partners on fiber rollout, from local city network operators to competitors. For example, 134,000 FTTH lines are to be created in Bochum in cooperation with Glasfaser Ruhr.

120 communities in the Stuttgart region are already benefiting from high-speed Internet. More than 260,000 households there can already book a fiber connection from Telekom, over 60,000 of them in the state capital. GlasfaserPlus, which was established just over a year ago, has more than 550,000 households on the market.

Deutsche Telekom plans to increase the number of fiber optic installers in the Fiber Factory by 50 percent. “We want to hire up to 1,000 new fiber experts. The majority of them will be for the installation area,” Srini Gopalan said.

Telekom has exceeded its targets for 2022 in terms of mobile network expansion. 94 percent of people in Germany can already use 5G. More than 80,000 antennas are transmitting 5G. Of these, around 8,000 antennas will be using the fast 5G frequency in the 3.6 gigahertz band by the end of the year. The goal for the 5G rollout is to cover 99 percent of the population by 2025.

“More capacity, more performance and always the best experience for customers – these are our goals for the rollout. With the 5G rollout, this has worked out at a pace that we have never seen with any other mobile standard,” said Walter Goldenits, Head of Technology at Telekom Deutschland.

5G Standalone is technically available in the 2.1 GHz frequency band. After the 3.6 GHz band and the 700 MHz band, these antennas are also connected to the 5G Standalone core network. Commercial use of 5G Standalone for residential customers will start as soon as applications are available.

Abdu Mudesir will take over the position as Managing Director Technology for Telekom Deutschland at the beginning of 2023. In addition, he will continue in his role as Group CTO. Walter Goldenits is leaving the top technology position at Telekom Deutschland at his own request after six years.

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