- Makedonski Telekom migrated the last customer to the new IP network, PSTN customers: zero
- Other countries will follow step by step until end of 2018
Amongst its much bigger brothers and sisters in Europe, Macedonia can claim that it is the first European country with pure All IP. Deutsche Telekom announced today that Makedonski Telekom is the first company within the Group with a network fully based on Internet protocol (All IP). Starting in October 2011 and within just 25 months, all 290,000 fixed network lines were migrated onto the new platform. Now services such as Broadband on Demand are already on offer. "Our vision is a Pan-European network on the basis of All IP. This network will integrate mobile communications and fixed-line network technology. And it will enable a new cloud-based production model", said Claudia Nemat, member of the Board of Deutsche Telekom for Europe & Technology . The objective is to have the customers across Europe migrated to IP by the end of 2018. "The experience gained from Macedonia is of great value. Migrating to All IP is a great challenge. With its successful launch our colleagues in Macedonia are real pioneers", said Nemat. "Although the number of migrated customers is small compared to Germany, the team faced the same challenges as the larger countries have to deal with. Our colleagues from Macedonia had to find solutions for -inter alia- flight control, alarm systems or large enterprises", said Nemat. "Macedonia is our IP hot spot, setting a great example and proving that we have a leading position in Europe." The IP technology uses Internet protocol for the transmission of voice, which enables the usage of next generation services, thus responding to the increasing needs of customers in the future. The new technology has replaced the digital switches in Macedonia, ie. the PSTN technology (Public Switched Telephone Network), making time to market for the launch of new products and services much faster than before. With IP, such launches may be completed in only a few days. Furthermore, an outstanding audio quality during calls, access to various services via a single device, a richer portfolio of multimedia, converged services, broadband Internet for every customer, as well as cloud services and remote access emergency IT support, will also be provided. Already the IP network technology enabled the launch of a revolutionary ‘Broadband on Demand’ service in Macedonia. This is a completely new concept which allows customers to book online high-speed Internet access whenever they need it, with just one click. And this is just the start: This technology will enable the provision of even more services in the future. It will contribute to improving education and health services, managing more efficiently energy consumption, to name but a few areas where benefits may be obtained. The All IP migration of Makedonski Telekom marks the successful start of Deutsche Telekom’s strategic decision to move towards All IP all subsidiaries in European integrated markets. As part of the IP transformation, this migration runs in other countries in parallel. Towards the end of 2014, Slovakia will be the next market that can say, "PSTN - zero clients, IP - all customers." The following year, Croatia and Montenegro will follow and then Hungary. By the end of 2018 Romania, Greece and Germany are expected to have migrated too.
About Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies with 140 million mobile customers, over 31 million fixed-network lines and more than 17 million broadband lines (as of September 30, 2013). The Group provides products and services for the fixed network, mobile communications, the Internet and IPTV for consumers, and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in around 50 countries and has 230,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 58.2 billion in the 2012 financial year – more than half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2012).