The German Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) has decided that Deutsche Telekom's EUR 1 billion VDSL expansion plans will help improve the broadband supply in Germany and approved the proposed roll-out of vectoring. The telecoms provider plans to connect 6 million households in German cities to VDSL at speeds of up to 100 Mbps by 2018.
However, the proposal has drawn sharp criticism from alternative operators, who claim it re-instates DT's monopoly by limiting their access to the copper network. Furthermore, they condemn the plan for investing a lot of money in a dated copper network instead of building new fibre connections.
DT first proposed the vectoring roll-out in February 2015. The regulator issued a draft decision on the wholesale broadband access regulation in November, and the public consultation generated significant comment. BNetzA said the operator will be subject to strict monitoring and the threat of sanctions in order to ensure it meets its roll-out promises. The German regulator's decision remains subject to clearance by the European Commission before becoming final.
