German govt, industry to cooperate on broadband strategy

bealtine

German govt, industry to cooperate on broadband strategy Wednesday 4 February 2009


Germany's federal government and the leaders of the German telecommunications industry have agreed to jointly focus on broadband expansion in Germany. This is the main conclusion of the broadband summit held on 3 February in the offices of German federal chancellor Angela Merkel. The telecom industry supports the broadband strategy proposed by the government, which is part of a larger economic stimulus plan, and earmarked the goals as ambitious, but achievable. These goals include broadband coverage for all German households by 2010, followed by 75 percent coverage of 50 Mbps in 2014 and 100 percent coverage of 50 Mbps in 2018. The parties agreed upon general points to achieve the goals, such as using the digital dividend spectrum for wireless broadband services in rural regions. At the same time, industry and government want to focus on more cooperation between operators on deploying very high-speed broadband infrastructure. The federal government plans to adopt a definite broadband strategy on 18 February.

In the run-up to the summit, several directors of alternative broadband providers warned the government to refrain from giving incumbent Deutsche Telekom a free rein to deploy FTTH or VDSL, and proposed alternative solutions. These include satellite technology, as proposed by the managing director of satellite services provider Astra Germany, Ferdinand Kayser. He said that his company’s broadband via satellite service Astra2Connect is able to provide broadband services in rural regions. At the same time, the CEO of German cable network operator Unitymedia, Parm Sandhu, said in an interview with Reuters that the government should not forget that cable networks are able to offer broadband services with maximum download speeds up to 100 Mbps using the new Docsis 3.0 technology. He also unveiled an initiative to connect 99 rural municipalities in Germany to broadband cable networks. Associations of ISPs or telecom operators such as Eco Verband, VATM and Breko also said that subsidising Deutsche Telekom or offering a regulatory holiday in exchange for a faster VDSL deployment by Deutsche Telekom will distort the current broadband market, which is competitive but not enough. They claim that their members are able to deploy VDSL for much lower costs and asked the government to take a multi-operator approach for its broadband strategy.

bealtine

bealtine wrote: »

Germany's federal government and the leaders of the German telecommunications industry have agreed to jointly focus on broadband expansion in Germany.

I think Ireland should do something like this, maybe IoffL could host a vendor neutral discussion on how to extend the reach of broadband here in Ireland?

Of course we all know the positions the various players will take up so maybe it would be rather pointless. But it might be worth a shot at least. We could then see what the various players have as outline plans for Ireland.

Ireland Inc needs a consensus and a plan.

As part of our "stimulus" plan we also need to focus on solutions and proper broadband deployment could be one of those, this is a matter of extreme urgency as can be seen from the number of other countries that are doing exactly that.

Note to lurkers : you can pm any member of IoffL (or me) and I can pass it on if you think this is a good idea.

Sponge Bob

But we had the Eamon Ryan NGN summit last year and we still await its deliberations with bated breath . At least I do

50mbits for 75% of the population , by 2014 like the Germans are doing , is very very doable in Ireland with its high cable TV penetration . If you went for universal cable tv in all towns and cities with a population of 1500 and up you would have passed 60% of the population.

Add a hinterland of 1km around each town and city and you would likely hit the 75%

Arguably eircom asked for the funding to do that 75% in early 2008 when they tried to tap the government for €500m but it could be done for less than half that . Shame eircom guarantees nothing as standard ....otherwise they might have been listened to.

The other 25% has no chance right now , left largely as it is to the mercy of 3 and their shoddy network and even shoddier service ethos

I would prefer a unified national plan all the same and that plan has to guarantee high speeds in all urban and near urban areas if it is to have any meaning . The tricky bit is that other 30% odd , what to do !!

watty

UPC are offically aiming for near 70% households passed unless I have misunderstood something.