Tele Columbus continues to expand its network. The cable network operator has put two more fiber optic rings into operation, to which around 480,000 households in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia are connected. The network operator is reducing the number of decentralized subnetworks with the rings over around 1400 kilometers of fiber optic link. This is associated with higher speeds and more reliability, the company announced on Wednesday.
The ring, which runs mainly in Thuringia, extends over 760 kilometers from Erfurt via Arnstadt, Jena, Stadtroda, Saalfeld, Bad Salzungen, Eisenach, Waltershausen and Gotha. Heiligenstadt, Sangerhausen and Eisleben are connected to the new fiber optic ring via an existing route from Halle (Saale). In Saxony and Brandenburg, a 610-kilometer fiberglass ring now runs through Weißwasser, Niesky, Löbau and Bautzen, Dresden, Großenhain and Riesa to Finsterwalde, Lübben, Lübbenau and Cottbus.
“More rings, more flexibility”
“By putting two more fiber optic rings into operation, we can react even more easily and quickly to the increasing demands on our network,” explains CTO Dietmar Pöltl. “In addition, we are significantly more flexible in terms of technological design and the maintenance effort is significantly reduced.” Tele Columbus now operates five regional fiber optic rings, with more to come.
If more cable networks are connected to the fiber optic rings, this also opens up opportunities to save elsewhere. For example, when feeding in the TV signal. In the medium term, Tele Columbus wants to reduce the number of headends through which television programs are fed in via satellite. Changes to a few headends take effect more quickly for more participants. When new programs are activated, locations along the rings benefit more quickly from the activation.
Tele Columbus is also investing in the expansion of fiber optics in the cable networks connected to the rings and is driving forward the digitization of the networks. The company places fiber optics as close as possible to the buildings and properties in order to guarantee the supply of gigabit connections based on Docsis 3.1 and to facilitate a later expansion of the fiber optics into the apartments. As a cable network operator, Tele Columbus supplies many major customers in the housing industry for whom an upgrade of the in-house network infrastructure is due in the next few years.
Additional cost privilege falls
With the new Telecommunications Act, homeowners and housing associations will no longer be able to settle the classic cable connection with the ancillary costs of the rent. In the future, this will only work to a limited extent and only for the expansion of FTTH infrastructure in buildings. This is intended to provide incentives for the housing industry to renew the old copper infrastructure and enable FTTH connections for tenants.
Tele Columbus goes one step further and offers the housing industry to take over the expansion of fiber optics in the house free of charge. Tele Columbus will then also deliver the DVB-C signal to the apartment via the new fiber optic connections. “We put four fibers in every apartment,” says Rüdiger Schmidt, who is responsible for business with the housing industry at Tele Columbus. “We do it for our own purposes, there is no levy.” The interest is great.
The tenants are then free to subscribe to one of the Pÿur offers. The current prices are calculated without the levy. At the latest when the grace period for the surcharge expires in summer 2024, Tele Columbus will convert the connected 2.4 million households so that they are direct customers. Anyone who pays for the cable connection with the additional rental costs by then receives a credit of 10 euros on the selected Pÿur tariff.
But Pÿur does not have to be the only alternative. Tele Columbus also opens its networks to other companies that want to offer their services on the infrastructure. With layer 2 bitstream access, third parties can then offer their own connection products across the entire network. Telefónica Deutschland is already doing this at the moment.
(vbr)