internet study
Germany’s gigabit network expansion is progressing
According to a study, Germany is now making progress in expanding its fast and stable fiber optic network. Photo: Matthias Rietschel/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
According to an expert in Germany, fiber optic connections are still in the minority. But their share will continue to grow.
Germany is making progress in expanding its fast and stable fiber optic network. According to a study by the Internet industry association VATM published on Tuesday, 10.1 million households will have access to the pure fiber optic network at the end of June, 1.7 million more than at the beginning of 2022.
It’s about fiber optics, laid right into the apartment (“Fiber to the Home”, FTTH) or down to the basement (“Fiber to the Building”, FTTB).
Just under a third of households use fiber optic connections. According to the study, the use part increased slightly, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. When presenting the study, telecommunications professor Torsten Gerpott was convinced that more contracts would soon be concluded. “The demand for high-bit-rate connections will continue to increase, as more and more applications require this high bandwidth,” said the expert from the University of Duisburg-Essen.
He pointed out that almost 18 percent of households with gigabit-capable connections are already using a tariff with a bandwidth of 1000 megabits (1 gigabit) per second or more. The rest of the customers who have activated their gigabit-capable connection have cheaper contracts with a slower transfer rate.
High dynamics in network expansion
For the study, the consulting company Dialog Consult evaluated data from the various market participants. In addition to Deutsche Telekom, the German fiber optic company, for example, also relies on the FTTH expansion. The figures from the study show that there is still very high dynamics in network expansion, said VATM President David Zimmer. “Investors have discovered fiber optic expansion in Germany for themselves.”
Consumers can access the Internet at gigabit speed not only via the pure fiber optic connections, but also via TV television cables that have been upgraded with Docsis 3.1 technology. This separate gigabit expansion, which Vodafone in particular has been pushing ahead with in recent years, is largely complete: the authors of the study estimate that the number of households with available gigabit television cables will only increase by 0.1 million to 25.7 million by the middle of the year.
In 5.4 million households, gigabit speed is available both via pure fiber optic connections and via TV cable, which was 0.9 million more than at the beginning of the year. The residents there have a luxury problem, so to speak: they can decide whether they want to access the Internet at home via television cable or fiber optics. FTTH is considered to be more stable and has fewer fluctuations when many neighbors or roommates are on the network at the same time, but it is also more expensive.