The expansion of broadband in Germany is picking up speed. Every day thousands of lines are being upgraded to provide speeds of up to 100 Mbit per second or more. But why are a small number of Deutsche Telekom customers receiving letters terminating their contracts? The paradoxical answer to this question is because we are enhancing the network.
Deutsche Telekom cannot simply convert the entire network over to a new technology entirely seamlessly in the background. For the changeover to happen, the existing contracts with customers will need to be modified. That is why the company is writing to its customers.
The background to all this is the development of what are often called “nearshore areas” to provide them with high-speed Internet. The bulk of these nearshore areas are being built by Deutsche Telekom itself. As long as customers already have an IP line, they will not notice anything. Except, of course, the fact that they can now get a faster Internet connection.
The allocations for development of the various nearshore areas have been awarded by the regulatory authority – the Bundesnetzagentur – German Federal Network Agency. 7,200 of these nearshore areas in Germany are being built by Deutsche Telekom, while the allocation for the remaining 400 – about five percent of the total – has been awarded to Deutsche Telekom’s competitors. These include EWE in Lower Saxony, for example. In these areas too, customers can expect high-speed Internet in the near future. Deutsche Telekom will have to hire the new, faster lines (and/or what are referred to as wholesale products) to do so.
Unfortunately, this gives rise to two problems.
Problem 1:
The required rental contracts are not in place in all cases. We are working on this issue. And we have yet to achieve the technical preconditions for such arrangements – together with EWE, for example. This may take a few months. It is at this point that the problem arises: for technical reasons, the new, faster network can only be built by a single provider in each nearshore area, with competitors then having to rent the new infrastructure. That means they have to decommission their VDSL technology, which permits lines of 25 Mbps or 50 Mbps. Lines running on this technology need to be switched over temporarily to a different standard: ADSL, which only enables speeds of up to 16 Mbps. In other words, to make it go faster it will have to go a little slower for a short period.
Problem 2:
Deutsche Telekom cannot simply implement this conversion to a new technology entirely in the background. For the changeover to happen, the existing contracts with customers will need to be modified. That is why Deutsche Telekom is writing to its customers.
Almost 10,000 lines are affected by this issue in Lower Saxony. We are notifying affected customers about the changes in the network and are informing them on the alternatives available. Unfortunately, though, we also have to inform them that we will be forced to terminate the contract if they do not respond to our communications. Before that happens, we will of course contact our customers to ask them to work with us to find a new solution. And we have set up a hotline especially for this purpose.
The bulk of the customers to whom we have written have agreed to the temporary ADSL solution and to a new contract.
A new contract will be necessary in cases where we offer a product on the basis of a line rented from our competitor. This need arises due to the change in the service being provided. In this regard there the problem often arises that we have difficulties in reproducing such products as our TV offering, Entertain, using such lines.
Deutsche Telekom will clear up this topic as well, and inform customers appropriately. Our goal is of course to be in a position to provide our customers with the best possible Magenta offering. Using our own lines as far as possible. But, where necessary, also using the lines of other companies also involved in the development of high-speed Internet. Because Deutsche Telekom is open to precisely such collaborative partnerships.
Deutsche Telekom is set to offer speeds of up to 100 Mbps to 26 million households by the end of the year, 15 million of which will enjoy bandwidths of as much as 250 Mbps.
Network changes: FAQs What are all these termination letters for a small number of Deutsche Telekom customers about? Here are the five most important questions and answers on this topic.
