More high speed for Germany: Vodafone and Telefónica Deutschland to cooperate over fast fibre-optic connections for mobile networks

Vodafone and Telefónica Deutschland are planning to accelerate the connection of their mobile phone sites to fast fibre-optic cables. The two companies have agreed on a pilot project to connect parts of their mobile locations to each other's high-speed backhaul broadband lines. As a result of the cooperation, even more customers will benefit directly from high-speed data coverage via LTE (4G). The networks will thus be able to transport data even faster from the respective mobile phone locations. The cooperation may also serve as a building block to better prepare the mobile networks for the future technology 5G. From July 2018, the first shared or neighbouring mobile phone sites will be connected to the respective fibre-optic networks. In a first step the two companies will connect around 100 locations. 'The planned cooperation is good for our customers and good for Germany. With joint forces, we are able to drive the backhaul broadband connection necessary for high-speed networks in mobile communications more quickly and efficiently,' says Markus Haas, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Telefónica Deutschland. 'In this way, we are improving the network quality of Telefónica Deutschland's newly integrated network while preparing our network for the future technology 5G. Our mobile network will thus form the optimal foundation for our customers' mobile freedom.'Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of Vodafone Germany, explains: 'With this pilot project we are taking a clever path: On the one hand, we are driving home even more capacity to the Vodafone network, which already delivers the highest peaks regarding speed in the market. On the other hand, the project is another possible building block in our 5G strategy for building the network of tomorrow.'