Background

Under the Partnership Agreement with Vodafone Meridiam will roll-out numerous Fibre to the home (FTTH) deployments in Germany. The Partnership was established after the first successful cooperation of Meridiam and Vodafone in the Montabaur FTTH project. Meridiam will design, construct, finance and operate the passive network for seven areas in Germany, across 6 Länder. As the anchor tenant, Vodafone will operate the active network and will provide Meridiam with a guaranteed minimum level of 35% of the targeted Homes Passed. Under the open access obligation, Vodafone is also obliged to open the network to other internet service providers (ISP) that want to market their services on the Meridiam-owned network. Under the first phase (91,00 HP in total), Meridiam will deploy FTTH in the following seven areas and homes passed (HP) between 2022-2024:
• Velpke: 4,000 HP
• Main-Kinzig-Kreis: 24,000 HP
• Brandenburg an der Havel: 8,000 HP
• Wiesbaden: 15,000 HP
• Ortenaukreis: 15,000 HP
• Cologne: 16,000 HP
• Wirges: 9,000 HP
Plan II and III will be launched in the coming years. Rollouts are being developed in close cooperation with the local municipalities including coordination of the construction works and the pre-marketing phases. Meridiam Glasfaser A GmbH & Co. KG (the “Project Company”) will lead the network planning, roll-out management and development of the IT network infrastructure.

Stage:

Financial close

ESG / SDG Key Facts

An SDG Roadmap is currently being developed to build on the wider impact of the project outlined below.
The project targets various smaller and mid-size communities which will allow them to be connected to the network. Fast internet connection is essential to make these communities future-proof and resilient which will also reduce the gap between urban and rural areas and foster overall social cohesion. In addition, internet transmission via fibre is less energy-consuming than via the existing copper infrastructure, thereby reducing the carbon footprint per data unit. The project aims at further reducing its carbon footprint through the use of more energy efficient processes (such as more efficient cooling systems).