For the use of ducts in the main distribution network, Germany’s Federal Network Agency now sets monthly net charges of between 5 and 37 cents per metre, depending on the […]
An outdoor Wi-Fi mesh system currently costs around €250 (example: Netgear Orbi RBS50Y Outdoor Satellite). I thought it could be done much more cheaply, so last year I simply put […]
Bitkom is calling for proceeds from future spectrum auctions to be invested in network expansion, for example broadband rollout in rural areas. The full article is available on heise.de; see below. I found the following passage particularly interesting:
Following the liberalisation of the market, the federal government has received more than €60 billion from telecommunications providers through spectrum auctions.
That is quite a sum accumulated through GSM, UMTS, WiMAX and LTE auctions. And in 2016, the GSM frequencies are due to go under the hammer again. The finance minister is probably rubbing his hands already.
— Read more http://heise.de/-2085489
Similar to Berlin, Munich will soon have free Wi-Fi as well. The pilot project, initially planned for two years, is to launch first at Marienplatz. Karlsplatz, Odeonsplatz, Isartor and Sendlinger Tor will follow in autumn. The network will be operated by Stadtwerke München, hence the name M-WLAN. More information and additional links are available at heise.de
This article on Golem.de shows how Google makes money from fibre connections in the USA. Dear “Drosselkom”, you could learn a thing or two from that! Google may only be rolling out these connections in metropolitan areas, but Telekom also claims that throttling was introduced because expanding the access network is expensive – and most connections are naturally located in urban areas. More background and information on how much one GB of traffic costs Telekom can be found in another Golem article.
According to heise.de, Deutsche Telekom could “run into trouble with the Federal Cartel Office over its planned internet DSL tariffs with flat-rate throttling”. The issue under scrutiny is not throttling after a certain data volume has been consumed, but the exclusion of certain services from throttling, which could still cause problems for Telekom. Here is the link to the article …
