Munich is not a remote mountain village where making phone calls and surfing the Internet is sometimes difficult due to a lack of network coverage. Nevertheless, the high-tech expansion in the Bavarian capital is not always without conflict. Wolfgang Dausch recently found this out.
The Ramersdorf resident lives near the Michaelibad, between Mittlerer Ring and Ostpark. A few days ago he received a letter from the operator M-net. “It is with regret,” the municipal utility subsidiary wrote, “that we are terminating your landline contract.” The reason given is “a network based on copper cables” that will no longer be worthwhile to operate in the future. And because the construction of a new fiber optic network in his area is “unfortunately not currently planned,” the service to his address will have to be “discontinued.”
The Munich resident is advised to “sign a new contract with another provider in good time” in order to keep the phone number. If he fails to do so, he will be left without a landline phone or internet in the future. Dausch sees this as an affront. “I find it a bit strange to be thrown out after 26 years.”
M-net sees things differently. The company has been using fiber optic technology for more than 15 years and has already connected most of the households in Munich to the future-proof network, explains press spokesman Hannes Lindhuber in a written statement. “To a very small extent” there are still households that have previously been supplied by M-net via a connection to Deutsche Telekom’s copper main distribution frame. “However, this type of supply will no longer be available to us in the future.” Either because the locations have been abandoned by the previous operator or for economic reasons. If the number of customers is too small, the connection is simply no longer worthwhile. “The corresponding connections are therefore gradually being migrated to a fiber optic connection.”
But what if, as in Dausch’s case, no fiber optic cables have been laid? “In these cases, we inform customers in good time and cancel the corresponding connection with sufficient advance notice,” emphasizes Lindhuber. They would then have to switch to providers who still operate the copper network. “This process is currently underway across the entire market,” says the spokesperson. M-net wants to have completed it by 2026. “In our network in Munich, with a few hundred exceptions, we can offer all customers fiber optic-based access for the future.” In any case, Wolfgang Dausch no longer has a future at M-net.