Management & facts

Deutsche Telekom is Germany’s largest investor when it comes to expansion of the network infrastructure. We are continuously expanding our networks, increasing the efficiency of our network systems and further strengthening our role as a leader in network quality. This includes efforts via our national companies in Europe and the United States, which are working continually to expand our network infrastructure and improve
our network quality.

In expanding our mobile network in Germany, we conform to the coverage requirements imposed by the Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA, Federal Network Agency). As of the end of 2022, we had made LTE  coverage available to 99 percent of all households. In addition, we have been providing broadband service, with bandwidth  of 50 or 100 Mbps , along more and more traffic routes. Already, over 94 percent of people in Germany now have access to Deutsche Telekom's fast, new 5G mobile network. Our goal: To be providing 5G coverage to 99 percent of the population by the end of 2025.

We have almost completed our FTTC  (fiber to the curb ) expansion in our fixed network in Germany. With our FTTH  (fiber to the home) expansion, we are installing fiber-optic  connections directly in customers’ homes. Our aim is to close gaps in the network in rural areas and provide urban centers with the high bandwidth they require. We want to continue this rollout efficiently and, to this end, are also participating in funding programs. In the coming years, we expect to provide FTTH to up to an additional 3 million households per year.

Further information about our network expansion is available in our annual report.

Our network strategy also calls for systematically upgrading our mobile networks with 4G/LTE  and 5G technologies, with a view to increasing the transmission rates offered by all of our national companies. Thanks to our investments, our customers are enjoying better network coverage and fast mobile broadband service. As of the end of 2022, for example, in Germany we were making LTE coverage to approximately 99 percent of households, and 5G coverage to over 94 percent of households. The corresponding 5G figure for Europe is 47 percent. As of the end of the year under review, we had brought fiber-optic  technology to some 5.4 million households in our fixed network. We are continuing to give priority to connecting households directly to our fiber-optic network. In 2022, we provided some two million additional households with the option of ordering fiber-optic accesses. Also, we offer innovative products, such as our hybrid router, that enable customers to combine fixed-network and mobile bandwidth . This is an effective strategy for increasing bandwidth that is especially useful in rural regions.

Our network expansion progress in Germany can be followed in our online expansion tracker (only available in German) .

Since November 2022, Telekom Deutschland has been directing the “6G-TakeOff” research project, which is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The project is aimed at developing a consistent 6G architecture for communications networks, consisting of satellite access stations, airborne infrastructure platforms and satellites. A total of 22 industry and scientific partners are collaborating in the effort. The first 6G networks are expected to become operational in 2030.

Information on 5G expansion is available here.

Data audited by Deloitte.

The fundamental aim is to operate our networks in the most stable and failure-free manner possible. Major events such as festivals and summit meetings place networks under particular strain. We make sure, however, that voice calls and data are still transmitted in the quality our customers have come to expect by temporarily setting up extra mobile masts or laying additional fiber-optic  cables.

In emergency situations, it is especially important for networks to function properly, so that emergency calls can be made and responses organized. In emergencies, such as floods or large fires, in which network equipment is damaged to the point that cellular and fixed-line services cannot be quickly restored, our Disaster Recovery Management (DRM)(only available in German) comes into play. It operates mobile containers with communications equipment that can quickly stand in for disrupted cellular and fixed-line service.

The disastrous floods of July 2021 damaged large portions of the telecommunications infrastructure in Germany. An interdepartmental task force was established to manage the restoration effort. The team was able to quickly restore operations at 250 of the 300 cellular base stations that had suffered flood damage. A total of 120 base stations had suffered major damage, however, and wireless service for 250 000 people was temporarily disrupted. Cellular capacities were then increased using mobile masts and special antennas fitted to existing masts. As a result of these efforts, cellular service was completely restored in the flood-damaged areas within the space of only a week. In addition, around 97 percent of the some 100 000 destroyed fixed-network accesses were restored by the end of 2021. As a stopgap measure, we provide affected customers with free LTE  or hybrid routers, along with unlimited data allowances for calling and internet usage.

In the hardest-hit regions, existing copper-wire accesses that had been damaged or destroyed were not restored; instead, they were replaced with fiber-to-the-home (FTTH ) fiber-optic accesses. As a result, some 45 000 new fiber-optic accesses were installed in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.

In the interest of even faster network restoration following extreme events such as those disastrous floods, Deutsche Telekom’s DRM team is working to provide a satellite-based mobile base station. Such a station would make it possible to establish a mobile network within just a few hours. This project is currently in its pilot phase in the lower Franconian city of Fuchsstadt. The first trials with the new system have been promising, and it seems as if it will indeed be possible in the future to restore service very quickly following extreme events.

A total of 80 000 antennas are now operating at the 5G standard in Deutsche Telekom’s network in Germany (as of December 2022). As of the end of 2022, this new mobile communications standard was available to over 94 percent of all households in Germany. Most of the antennas transmit on the 2.1 GHz frequency, both in large cities and in smaller communities and rural areas.

5G on the fast 3.6 GHz frequency band is available in 630 cities and communities (as of December 2022). Over 7 800 antennas are now in place, at a total of over 2 600 locations. As a result, more and more people are now able to enjoy high-speed 5G service.

Deutsche Telekom decommissioned its 3G  network in Germany in 2021. The frequencies that have become available as a result are now being used for 5G and LTE  service. In other words, more bandwidth  is now available for these two newer, and considerably more powerful, technologies.

Deutsche Telekom’s fiber-optic  network is the largest in Europe, with a length of over 690 000 kilometers in Germany alone (as of December 2022). As global data traffic continues to grow rapidly, we are continuing to expand our fiber-optic network. To do this as quickly and efficiently as possible, we use planning software and modern deployment methods such as trenching. Via our expansion tracker for Germany(only available in German), we provide clear reports on our progress.

To expand the fiber-optic network, we are using FTTC  (fiber to the curb ) technology with super vectoring and are expanding FTTH  (fiber to the home) as well.

	DSL  16000	FTTC with super vectoring	FTTH
Download	up to 16 Mbit/s	up to  250 Mbit/s	up to  1 000 Mbit/s
Upload	up to 2.4 Mbit/s	up to  40 Mbit/s	up to  500 Mbit/s