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FRANKFURT, April 9 (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom has received conditional regulatory approval to upgrade itscopper network via a process called vectoring, or VDSL2, inorder to offer faster Internet.
The German federal network agency said on Tuesday in a draftdecision that Deutsche Telekom would have to give itscompetitors access to the new technology but it could denyaccess in areas where alternative networks are available.
In the next 20-25 years as much as 80 billion euros ($104billion) is needed to roll out a fibre optic network in Germany,investment that will need to be shared among the local telecomsoperators.
In the meantime Deutsche Telekom wants to upgrade its coppernetwork via vectoring, or VDSL2. This cheaper alternative willenable it to offer Internet speeds of up to 100 megabits persecond, up from current levels of 16 Mbit/s.
Cable companies at the moment offer 50 Mbit/s Internet forthe same price or less than Deutsche Telekom's current speeds,and can already supply up to 150 Mbit/s.
Vectoring is a technology which makes it possible to double bandwidth by cancelling electromagnetic interference betweenlines in so-called distribution boxes.
To make it work the technology can only be installed by oneoperator in the boxes. After that the new infrastructure can beused by all operators.
Deutsche Telekom, which said on Tuesday it welcomed thedecision, owns about 330,000 such boxes in Germany, while itscompetitors have connected to about 8,200 of these boxes withtheir own lines.
In Germany cable operators such as Kabel Deutschland and Liberty Global's Unity Media arechipping away at Deutsche Telekom's share of the broadbandmarket with faster, cheaper offerings.
Their cable lines, designed to deliver TV to homes, havebeen upgraded to carry voice calls and Internet at speeds oftenfive times faster than competing services from the telcos.
Deutsche Telekom controls more than 40 percent of thebroadband market. Vodafone has about 12 percent.
Kabel Deutschland, the largest cable operator with about 15million of the 28 million homes served by cable, said inDecember the market penetration of it and its rivals infixed-line broadband was below 15 percent.
