- Deutsche Telekom launches first LTE network in major city
- Customers will be able to surf at rates of up to 100 Mbit/s starting July 1
- Group invests EUR 5 million for residents of Cologne
Effective immediately, Cologne will be pleased not only about the 763 km of the best developed public transport system in Germany. In addition, the city will receive the fastest mobile surfing connections in the country: only 12 months after the public auction, Deutsche Telekom will launch the first LTE high-speed network (Long Term Evolution) in a major German city. After Cologne, more than 100 other cities in the entire federal territory will be provided with next generation mobile communications. Further expansion will occur in the weeks ahead.
"I am especially delighted to be able to provide the starting signal for the fastest mobile Internet here in Cologne only 12 months after the LTE public auction," said René Obermann on the occasion of the launch of the new network in Cologne with the North Rhine-Westphalia Minister for Economic Affairs Harry K. Voigtsberger and Cologne mayor Jürgen Roters. "The speed of expansion demonstrates just how important the performance of our networks is for us."
"With Cologne, we are very pleased that Deutsche Telekom has chosen to implement the new technology in a city in the most populated state. In doing so, we strengthen the Cologne business metropolis and the technology location of North Rhine-Westphalia," said Harry K. Voigtsberger, minister for business, energy, construction, housing, and transportation of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Jürgen Roters, mayor of Cologne, was just as delighted: "Fast data connections are just as important today as freeway connections or an airport. Cologne is well-equipped for the future with the fast data network of Deutsche Telekom."
LTE available in the entire municipal area The 11 lines of the Cologne city railway provide optimal networking for the individual station stops. The 100 LTE base stations serve the same function, which makes surfing with up to 100 Mbit/s possible. The 576 vehicles of the public transportation services accomplish what is also made possible by an LTE wireless USB surf stick: also utilizing the benefits of the most up-to-date technology while traveling. "With the new LTE offering, we are expanding our product portfolio and open up interesting new applications for the population of Cologne through wireless. The opportunity thus exists to also experience surfing speed that one is accustomed to from a fixed line network on one’s mobile device," said Niek Jan van Damme, Board member and the person responsible for Deutsche Telekom business in Germany. "This opportunity will also exist in the future for many other customers in other cities." Experience pays off About 80 employees of Deutsche Telekom installed the technology in about 5000 working hours. Besides the 100 LTE stations, the company laid approximately 120 km of fiber optic cable in the Cologne municipal area in the past few months in order to connect the base stations with state-of-the-art transmission technology. An investment volume of about EUR 5 million now makes Cologne the fastest city in Germany when it comes to mobile surfing. Benefits at a glance for Cologne residents
- Speed record: mobile surfing up to 100 Mbit/s
- Utilization of 1.8 Ghz technology for surfing at the fiber optic level
- 100 LTE base stations serve the entire city center region.
- About 150 km² will be developed.
- Speed stick LTE: first LTE end device especially for mobile use. The LTE speed stick supports - in addition to LTE technology - existing networks and can thus also be used in GSM/EDGE (2G) and UMTS/HSPA (3G) nationwide.
- Starting July 1, a special rate offer for Cologne: For the launch phase of LTE in Cologne, the maximum speed of the current rate web'n'walk Connect XXL will be increased to up to 100 Mbit/s for downloads for three months. In addition, the base rate in the amount of EUR 74.95 will be dropped for the first three months.
- With the availability of LTE in other major cities, the introduction of another high-speed rate will occur in the fall of 2011. This will enable use of LTE with full bandwidth of up to 100 Mbit/s for downloading. With an inclusive volume of 50 gigabytes, the rate will cost EUR 89.95 per month. This rate will also be exempt from the basic charge for the first three months of the launch phase.
Start of a test phase with selected business customers also outside of Cologne At the same time as the expansion in Cologne, a comprehensive LTE test phase with selected business customers will already begin in June, with a focus on Munich, Frankfurt, and Münster. With the availability of speed stick LTE, the customers can be the first to experience the benefits of LTE. Networks are the key to rapid growth
- The data volume of German mobile communications is perpetually increasing. Still 0.2 million gigabytes in 2005, it is about 70 million gigabytes in 2011, according to an estimate by the trade association Bitkom. This corresponds to a data volume of approximately 45 million motion pictures.
- Mobile data revenues are also developing favorably: according to the trade association, the 7-billion euro threshold will be reached this year.
- Smart phone distribution will exceed the 10-million unit threshold this year still and realize more than EUR 2.2 billion in revenue. One out of every three new cell phones will be a smart phone. The demand for 5.4 million units in 2009 will thus increase to over 10 million in 2011, according to Bitkom.
- The app market will also develop just as favorably. About 900 million applications were loaded in 2010. In doing so, the number of app downloads more than doubled in comparison to 2009. According to an estimate from Bitkom, the end of this development is nowhere in sight.
LTE: the technology of the future
- In May 2010, Deutsche Telekom successfully participated in Germany’s largest frequency auction to date and in doing so secured a total spectrum of 95 MHz. The company paid a total of about EUR 1.3 billion for the new frequency ranges.
- Deutsche Telekom purchased 20 MHz (two times 10 MHz) in the 790 to 862 MHz frequency range, the so-called "digital dividend." This spectrum is initially to be used to supply rural areas with broadband lines and to make a rapid start on filling in some of the “blank spots.” The digital dividend is particularly suitable for this purpose, as relatively few stations are required for broadband coverage.
- Deutsche Telekom will use the acquired spectrum in the other, higher frequency ranges (1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz) to enlarge capacities and speed for growing data traffic in metropolitan areas.
Fast Internet for rural areas An essential economical basis of network expansion in rural areas is DSL cooperation with communities. Since 2008, Deutsche Telekom has entered into cooperation with over 2500 communities and equipped more than 300,000 households with broadband. Since that time, the company has provided rural areas with broadband up to 50 Mbit/s. As background: the Group offers cooperation where network expansion by itself is not economically justifiable due to low customer potential and high costs for Deutsche Telekom. The municipalities can then participate in the expansion in various ways, for example, by making cable duct systems available, taking over underground construction, or compensating the financial funding gap. The primary cost driver is underground engineering work, which can cost up to EUR 60,000 per kilometer. The communities usually get back the majority of their investment through the federal states’ loan program Network expansion in the technology mix In order to make broadband connections available to as many rural communities as possible, the Group is increasingly focused on the so-called technology mix. Where expansion of the fixed network is too expensive, Deutsche Telekom will review wireless and microwave radio system solutions to offer residents fast Internet access via alternative technologies. By the end of 2010, Deutsche Telekom provided about 95 percent of households with broadband of at least one megabit per second in the technology mix. LTE makes efficient broadband access possible and in doing so plays an important role in rural areas with comparably few wireless base stations.
About Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies with around 128 million mobile customers, 36 million fixed-network lines and almost 17 million broadband lines (as of March 31, 2011). The Group provides fixed-network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers, and ICT solutions for business and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in around 50 countries and has approximately 244,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 62.4 billion in the 2010 financial year - more than half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2010).