Glasfaser Nordwest, which was founded in early 2020 as a joint venture between Telekom Deutschland and EWE, says it has launched its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network in 14 cities and communities in the year since it was established. Over 60,000 fibre connections have been enabled in the northwest of Germany in the past twelve months and the firm says it is aiming to roll out an additional 100,000 by mid-2021.
TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database states that in March 2019 Telekom Deutschland signed an agreement with regional operator EWE to establish the 50/50 joint venture to ultimately connect 1.5 million homes and businesses to FTTH in Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bremen. EWE and Telekom intend to invest EUR2 billion (USD2.4 billion) in the initiative over a period of around ten years. After receiving regulatory approval, Glasfaser Nordwest was established in January 2020 and the company began rolling out FTTH networks in Vechta, Belm and Cloppenburg, followed by Achim, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Delmenhorst, Emsdetten, Georgsmarienhutte, Oldenburg, Stade and Tostedt. Glasfaser Nordwest does not directly market any services to end users, but instead will provide EWE, Telekom and – in the future – other telcos with access to the fibre-optic infrastructure under open market conditions.