- Targeting around 8 million IP-based lines in Europe by the end of 2014
- Testing LTE Advanced with speeds of up to 580 MBit/s
- Introducing Hybrid access router end of 2014
Deutsche Telekom has set itself the goal of having around 8 million IP-based lines across its footprint in Europe by the end of 2014. Claudia Nemat, Board member of Deutsche Telekom for Europe & Technology, and Niek Jan van Damme, Board member of Deutsche Telekom for Germany, presented the company´s network strategy at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona. Deutsche Telekom is undertaking immense efforts in various European countries to transform its traditional fixed-line network to one based completely on Internet Protocol (IP). This, in turn, is an important milestone on the Group´s way to creating a Pan-European network, that will integrate mobile communications and fixed-line network technology. “The growing traffic demands by new mobile access technologies including machine-to-machine and real-time applications require a holistic network approach to improve capacity, efficiency and manage the best-possible customer experience,” said Claudia Nemat. "Innovation in networks is invisible, but customers feel the benefits. It's a revolution that is as radical as the transition from horse and carriage to car." In Germany, around 2.1 million lines have already been converted to IP. “In 2014, we want to more than double the number of connections converted to IP - and this in continuous operations”, said Niek Jan van Damme. “Our ambitious objective is to transform our entire network in Germany to IP technology by the end of 2018. We are doing this to enhance the customer experience through superior products, better customer service and shorter time-to-market with higher speed and less latency.” In the EU operating segment (without Germany) around 2.7 million lines have been migrated. With its subsidiary Makedonski Telekom, Deutsche Telekom just achieved an important milestone in the migration to an all-IP network: Macedonia is now the first country in Europe to have a network that runs entirely on IP technology and to have 100 percent of all customers on that network. By the end of 2014, Slovakia will be the next market. 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 as well. In keeping with a holistic network approach, a high-performance transport network must be supported by equally high-performance access technology for short distances. Therefore, LTE will play an increasingly important role for the next generation network. At the end of 2013, Deutsche Telekom launched LTE in almost all of its markets. By 2016, Deutsche Telekom will be able to provide LTE to its customers at every second base station across Europe. “We don’t only have the expansion of network coverage in mind; we also want to keep increasing the speed of connections. That’s why we’re carrying out tests in Germany, among other places, to see how we can provide customers with data as fast as possible through LTE Advanced,” said Claudia Nemat. “Today I can say that we have reached a point in the LTE rollout in Germany where our customers can use LTE in over 150 cities with speeds up to 150 megabits per second,” added Niek Jan van Damme. 300 megabits per second will be the next milestone. In a test last week in the German city of Alzey Deutsche Telekom reached even speeds of up to 580 MBit/s. Deutsche Telekom also presented a hybrid router at the MWC. “It represents our strategy like no other hardware product. Three technologies are combined in a single "box": The fixed network, LTE and WiFi. This ensures a top-quality experience. Our customers never have to mind the technology - they are always best connected. It’s Plug and Play - easy and fast,” said Niek Jan van Damme. The router is a smart mix of technologies. It bundles, concentrates and distributes bandwidth without customers having to do anything. By merging the existing bandwidth, customers will be able to experience new top speeds that are not possible in the respective stand-alone versions. Market entry will be at the end of 2014.
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 fixed network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services 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).