Fiber optic expansion in comparison: other cities of millions depend on Berlin

Only real fiber optic cables deliver extremely fast Internet. In Cologne, Hamburg and Munich, many people can also use this. In Berlin and many large cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, on the other hand, network providers rely on transition technologies.

According to a study, Cologne has the edge when it comes to expanding with high-speed fiber optic cables. With an expansion rate of around 80 percent, the Rhine metropolis is ahead of Munich and Hamburg, as an evaluation of the comparison portal Verivox based on the federal broadband atlas showed. It compares the 20 largest German cities in terms of the extent to which real, high-speed fiber optic cables are routed to homes (FTTB / "Fiber to the Building") or even to apartments (FTTH / "Fiber to the Home"). Upgraded cable lines were not included in the evaluation.

The capital, Berlin, is relatively far behind the other cities with a population of five million, with only five percent fiber optic cables. There are also a relatively large number of large cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, including Dortmund, Bochum, Münster, Düsseldorf and Essen, which have a maximum expansion rate of five percent.

The telecommunications expert from Verivox, Jens-Uwe Theumer, justifies this with the fact that densely populated regions like these are often well supplied with – in some cases highly upgraded – cable networks. "In particular, the major network providers are temporarily investing in these technologies, the speeds of which are still sufficient for most customers," said Theumer.

Local providers help

For the front runners, the good expansion values ​​would not only come about through the activities of large telecommunications groups, but also through the contribution of local providers such as NetCologne or M-net. However, just like other competitors, Deutsche Telekom recently announced once again that it plans to invest more in fiber optic expansion in the future.

Vodafone also has television cables that can be upgraded to gigabit speeds using a special technology. These are not included in the current evaluation, although in practice they are currently sufficient for many customers, since they opt for lower transmission rates in favor of cheaper tariffs.

The industry association VATM had forecast at the end of April that by the middle of the year more than half of all households would have Gigabit-capable connections. This corresponds to around 51 percent of all German households and around 5.5 million more connections than at the end of 2019.

. (tagsToTranslate) Technology (t) Internet use (t) Hamburg (t) Berlin (t) Munich (t) Cologne (t) Vodafone (t) Deutsche Telekom