Fiber optics: Government avoids guidelines to prevent Telekom's double expansion

The German government sees no need for further measures against the overbuilding of fiber optic lines by Deutsche Telekom. It is thus rejecting appeals from the Monopolies Commission and Deutsche Telekom's competitors. The latter have been accusing the Bonn-based company for years of cherry-picking when it comes to network expansion and screwing up the marketing of competitors' fiber optic systems by overbuilding. In its statement on the Monopolies Commission's latest report on the telecommunications market, however, the executive merely states that it does not consider the issuance of guidelines by the Federal Network Agency and the Federal Cartel Office called for by the committee to be "expedient".

The regulatory authority has set up a monitoring body on this topic, the government explains. "This is investigating the question of the extent to which competitors are being abusively prevented from expanding their own networks by means of a strategic double expansion." Last year, the Federal Network Agency published an interim report on this, for which 427 individual cases were evaluated. The authority will continue to analyze incoming information. In addition, the Federal Digital Ministry has set up a clearing office at the Federal Gigabit Office. This will act on the initiative of the affected companies and municipalities.

Findings to date "hardly generalizable"

In its report, the regulator found signs of concentration on "lucrative core areas" in just over half of the "Telekom cases" examined, in which the Bonn-based company was added as a second company. In more than 50 percent of such expansion announcements, Telekom had also reacted quickly to the plans of competitors. According to the German government's response, however, the observations of "announced or actual dual expansion" are characterized by the fact that they are based on heterogeneous case constellations that can hardly be generalized. In contrast, the industry associations Breko and VATM recently increased the pressure on the Federal Network Agency to take effective remedial measures.

The executive does not even address the sale of the remaining shares of the federal government in Telekom, which was brought into play by the Monopolies Commission. It is largely satisfied with the foreseeable development of the telecommunications markets. A trend reversal in marketed broadband connections can be observed: The number of contracts for "100 Mbit/s and more" had risen to 17.9 million with 38.1 million active broadband connections in 2023. As of June 2024, 35.7% of households in Germany could in principle book fiber optic (FTTB/H), compared to 28.2% in the previous year. In principle, the government supports the creation of a concept for copper-glass migration and the regulator's controversial plan to extend frequency usage rights in mobile communications by five years.

(vbr)