News
Meridiam and Vodafone Deutschland partner to provide full fiber optic access for 25 municipalities and their 40 000 inhabitants in Germany
04.03.2020
Through this fiber network all individuals, businesses and public bodies will get access to a fiber connection. Such an approach is unique in Germany and became possible through the innovative cooperation between partners. This cooperation model also offers great potential to be transferred to other regions in Germany.
While Meridiam is responsible for the financing, construction and maintenance of the network, Vodafone will operate the network and offer both private and business customers the wide Vodafone product portfolio. For Meridiam, such a comprehensive and sustainable fiber network creates the basis for many subsequent infrastructure developments and further smart city solutions (i.e. 5G rollout, automated driving…), and opens up further replicable opportunities to be jointly developed with public authorities.
For Vodafone, extensive fiber-optic installation in every home on this scale has so far been unique. It gives the company the opportunity to complement its existing cable network with high-quality fiber products and to further develop it cooperatively, offering customers in the community high-performance products at gigabit level. Vodafone will also open the network to other telecommunications companies, thereby giving them the opportunity to market their products locally to local end customers.
The demand for broadband down – and upload speed and volume is growing exponentially in Europe. This growing demand will only be supplied in the long term with technology based on fiber networks. At the same time, the penetration of households and businesses in many European countries (i.e. Germany, UK, Austria) with Fibre to the Home (FTTH) connections is below 10% which leads to significant investment needs in these countries (> 100 bn EUR). Meridiam therefore foresees a lot of opportunities in the future for the development of such projects.