2015 Germany - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Digital Media - Statistics and Analyses

German ISPs to deliver on vectoring and G.fast for superfast broadband

Germany has one of Europe’s largest telecom markets, as befits a country with a population of more than 81 million. Penetration in the broadband and mobile sectors is about average for the region. Both the fixed network and broadband markets are dominated by Telekom Deutschland, though other notable players including freenet, Vodafone and Telefónica, have gained market share as the incumbent continues to rebound from a poor performance which has led to declining revenue since 2010.

Germany also has the second largest broadband market in Europe. The dominant DSL platform is led by Telekom Deutschland which has invested in network upgrades in recent years, with a focus of VDSL and vectoring technologies combined with fibre. The company has also trialled G.fast technology to add to the mix, and so provide a more economically feasible super-fast broadband product to meet the demands and timetable of the government’s national broadband targets by 2020. The strategy is also aimed at competing with cablcos, which by 2017 will begin deploying DOCSIS 3.1 networks and hardware capable of delivering data at up to 1Gb/s.

The mobile market is the largest in Europe, with about 118 million subscribers generating the largest proportion of revenue in the telecom sector as a whole. In common with most markets the main area of growth is in mobile data, with the number of mobile broadband subscribers having increased rapidly in recent years on the back of extensively available 3G and LTE networks. The market was long dominated by Telekom Deutschland and Vodafone Germany, though the acquisition of E-Plus by Telefónica has effectively created a triopoly of MNOs with relatively similar market share among them. There is also healthy market competition from an increasing number of resellers and MVNOs, which has placed pressure on voice and data tariffs, resulting in lower ARPU. Regulatory pressure on roaming charges and mobile termination rates have also eroded operator revenue, and encouraged them to step-up their development of data applications to improve profits.

These investments provide enormous potential for future growth, particularly given recent spectrum auctions which have enable operators to improve the reach and capabilities of their networks. As well as having refarmed digital dividend spectrum for mobile broadband use, the regulator auctioned additional spectrum in the 700MHz band in June 2015, paving the way for national mobile broadband coverage when this spectrum becomes available from 2017.

This report introduces the key aspects of the telecom market in Germany, providing comprehensive data on the country’s fixed network infrastructure as well as key regulatory developments including the status of interconnection, local loop unbundling, number portability, and carrier preselection. It also profiles the major operators, and details the development of Next Generation Networks. The report also provides statistics and analyses on the mobile market, including an overview of the main operators and their strategies for dealing with competition and emerging technologies in coming years. In addition, the report covers Germany’s fixed and wireless broadband markets, including analyses of developments with related technologies such as Fibre-to-the-Premises, powerline broadband, wireless broadband, Wi-Fi and internet via satellite.

Key developments:

• Regulator decides on future bitstream access requirements;
• Telecom market revenue showing continued contraction;
• Telekom Deutschland trials tri-band LTE-A technology;
• Regulator secures €5 billion from multi-band auction;
• Vodafone and O2 report strong growth in LTE customer base;
• Unitymedia drops KabelBW brand;
• Sky acquires 87.4% of Sky Deutschland;
• Tele Columbus launches mobile services;
• Government adopts Digital Agenda 2014 - 2017 program to expand broadband services nationally by 2018;
• Telekom Deutschland launches vectoring VDSL;
• EC sanctions government’s €3 billion investment in national broadband infrastructure;
• Report update includes the regulator’s market data for 2014, VATM market data updates for 2015, telcos’ operating and financial data to Q3 2015, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Telekom Deutschland, BT Global Services, Tele2 Germany, Telefónica Germany (O2 Germany), United Internet, Vodafone, Tiscali, Freenet, Telefónica, QSC, Kabel BW, Kabel Deutschland, Unitymedia, PrimaCom, The Cloud, Energie Baden-Wurttemberg, E-Plus, CallMobile.