Vodafone Germany signed a cooperation agreement with German operator Deutsche Glasfaser and the city of Duesseldorf on the construction of high-speed fibre networks for business and industrial areas, with an initial focus on 19 zones in Duesseldorf.
Under the terms of the agreement, which came days after reports suggested Vodafone was considering a take-over of the fibre specialist, Deutsche Glasfaser Business will build the passive infrastructure, while Vodafone will operate the active technology and provide services to companies.
Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of Vodafone Germany, and Uwe Nickl, management spokesman for Deutsche Glasfaser, see huge potential from the collaboration and expect around 5,000 companies to benefit from broadband speeds of up to 1 Gbps following the completion of the first project in 2018. Deutsche Glasfaser has secured funding of more than EUR 100 million to build networks in business and industrial zones. Contracts are expected to cost from EUR 299 per month.
In an interview with Rheinische Post, Ametsreiter said Deutsche Glasfaser was the biggest driver of fibre network buildout in Germany. Indeed, the company is one of the few German operators to pursue a full-fibre rollout and recently introduced 1 Gbps speeds for its customers. It was started by Dutch investment company Reggeborgh and more recently KKR took majority control. The company was estimated in February to have 235,000 homes passed and 70,000 customers.
In terms of future plans, Nickl said the collaboration could be extended to business parks across Germany if the Duesseldorf project is successful, and has not ruled out cooperation with other partners. Ametsreiter added that there are 30,000 small and large business zones in Germany that often lack high-speed broadband connectivity.
The Vodafone Germany chief also took a dig at Deutsche Telekom, noting that interim solutions based on copper would not drive Germany forward. He said Germany is far behind other countries in Europe when it comes to fibre with just 1.6 percent of connections benefiting from this superior fibre optic technology. That compares with 40 percent in Sweden and Latvia, he added.
