Deutsche Telekom announced its new strategy to pilot the fiber to the home (FTTH) network in smaller towns across in Germany.
Deutsche Telekom is rolling out its first such FTTH network in Bad Staffelstein town in Franconia.
Residents there can register for a fiber-optic line from Deutsche Telekom between December and February. If Deutsche Telekom receives a minimum of 750 orders for FTTH-powered Internet during the pre-marketing phase, the company will build the fiber-optic network by the end of 2018.
This will ensure Deutsche Telekom to optimize its Capex (capital expenditure) in its broadband programs in Germany. The telecom operator can also identify markets which have more potential for investments and marketing strategies.
Deutsche Telekom will waive installation charges to early bird sign-ups for an FTTH service in these select towns. Deutsche Telekom will launch similar FTTH models in Baden-Wurttemberg, Hesse, Saxony, and Thuringia next year.
“We introduced pre-marketing in 2011 and came back to it as a great tool for building out fiber-optic infrastructure. Demand was mostly too low a few years ago, but we’re hoping for a better response this time around,” said Niek Jan van Damme, head of Deutsche Telekom’s business operations in Germany.
The strategy of Deutsche Telekom is to lay the fiber-optic cables using microtrenching technology to cut costs. Microtrenching removes the need to dig out huge trenches. Instead, narrow grooves are milled into the road/sidewalk surface. This saves time and money and minimizes the disruption for residents in Germany.
Deutsche Telekom is also doubling its efforts to expand fiber-optic infrastructure in areas outside of these pilot projects. It aims to lay 40,000 km of new fiber-optic cables this year – up from the 30,000 originally planned. The figure planned for the coming year is 60,000 km.
Deutsche Telekom’s fiber-optic network now totals 455,000 km in length. Business parks are a particular focus of the FTTH build-out, alongside subsidized expansion activities and partnerships with competitors.
Deutsche Telekom focuses initially on building out fiber infrastructure to the cable distribution boxes and using vectoring as this allowed the company to rapidly cover large areas of Germany with high-speed Internet lines.
Deutsche Telekom in the second phase will bring optic fiber closer to German homes depending on regulatory incentives.
