Deutsche Telekom has submitted an application to Germany's Federal Network Agency to permit the use of vectoring for boosting the performance of its copper access network.
Deutsche Telekom plans to invest about EUR 6 billion over the next four years primarily to enhance its fixed network with vectoring. This upgrade would entail extending fiber optics up to the cable distribution boxes and then installing vectoring technology in the cabinets. This will enable 24 million households to benefit from the new technology.
Deutsche Telekom said the use of vectoring could boost VDSL downstream access rates to 100 Mbps, compared with top speeds in the 50 Mbps range today. Vectoring also supports upstream rates of around 40 Mbps.
In this regulatory filing, Deutsche Telekom is proposing to permit competitors to access lines that it has upgraded with vectoring. The carrier would offer a bitstream connection for vectoring available as a wholesale product.
Deutsche Telekom is also proposing that is competitors be allowed to deploy vectoring at the cable distribution boxes that they have already connected using fiber optics. Development of new areas by competitors is generally also conceivable. A prerequisite is that they - just like Telekom - allow other companies to use the new connections (open access). In addition, the "KVz-TAL" (subscriber line that runs to the cable distribution box) will generally be retained - this was a key demand of the trade associations of competitors.
"Only with vectoring can millions of households be provided with fast and efficient high-performance connections in the fixed network. We must take this opportunity for better networking of society in Germany, and that's why we have now seized the initiative with our application," emphasizes Niek Jan van Damme, Member of the Board of Management for Germany at Deutsche Telekom. In Belgium and Austria the regulatory authorities have already approved the use of vectoring with the support of the EU Commission.
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