DT’s €6bn Euro network push
March 3, 2015
Deutsche Telekom is to invest €6 billion in its multi-country network through to 2018, as it plans to offer a standardised platform for mobile, broadband and TV.
Timotheus Hoettges, CEO, said at the Mobile World Congress that Deutsche Telekom has now connected the first three of a planned ten countries for its new European network – Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia. “With our European network and the cross-border infrastructure, we will be able to set the tone and not just dance to the beat of drummers from the US and Asia….We are the first multinational telecommunications company to be able to truly make use of the synergies that arise when the national companies work together. This is our master plan for the digitisation of Europe.”
Deutsche Telekom said it is migrating up to 100,000 customer lines across Europe to IP technology each week. In total more than 8 million lines have already been migrated to IP technology across Europe, five million of those in Germany alone.
“By the end of 2018, all Telekom networks will speak one language: IP. Accordingly, the Group will also be able to operate these networks centrally,” said the company. It added that by 2018 half of all households connected to the Deutsche Telekom network in Europe will be able to surf the web at speeds of at least 100 Mbit per second, with fixed-line network speeds to reach up to 500 Mbit per second for around 12 per cent of households in the coming years.
Further planned expansion of Deutsche Telekom’s LTE network will also mean that by 2018 around 95 per cent of the population will be able to use high-speed LTE for mobile connectivity.