Deutsche Telekom says DSL expansion could cost $33.4B, considers acquiring small cable operators

Deutsche Telekom said that in order to reach 90 percent of the country with higher-speed DSL, including its vectored VDSL service, it will have to spend up to $13.4 billion in government funding.

Niek Jan van Damme, managing director of DT's Telekom Deutschland unit, said that another $20 billion would be required to cover the remaining 10 percent of Germany with speeds up to 50Mbps, Reuters reported .

Earlier this year, the service provider announced that it had moved nearly 3 million of its customers to IP-based technology, with the overall goal of upgrading all 20 million of its connections to IP technology by 2018.

Deutsche Telekom's deployment of IP technology provides the foundation for the telco to deploy vectoring with VDSL2, two technologies that will enable it to deliver up to 100 Mbps broadband speeds on the existing copper network beginning later this year.

This initiative follows a proclamation it made in December 2012 that it would spend €6 billion ($7.9 billion) to build a fiber-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) network to expand download speeds on its copper lines from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps.

But copper is just one option for Deutsche Telekom.

Citing a Focus magazine article, Reuters reported that DT is considering acquiring smaller cable operators.

"We are closely monitoring the TV-cable market and keep purchasing options open," Focus quoted van Damme as saying. "But things must fit together."

For more:
- Reuters has this article

Related articles:
Deutsche Telekom upgrades 2.6M customers to IP technology, sets pace for vectored DSL
Adtran says European service provider consolidation will benefit its international expansion