Vodafone hopes German government will hasten rollout of ultrafast broadband

Telecoms giant Vodafone has called on the German government to aid the rollout of ultrafast fibre broadband to homes and businesses by investing in so-called last mile networks.

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The blue-chip firm’s German chief Hannes Ametsreiter told Welt am Sonntag newspaper the last mile section of the network is “extraordinarily challenging”.

Germany has been slow out of the blocks in expanding its fibre-optic network, sparking concerns its export industry will lose competitiveness because of slow internet holding back computer-based manufacturing.

“It is enormously expensive to rip the road on your own,” Ametsreiter said. “It would be better to do it like the Spaniards and Portuguese, for example. The state lays empty pipes, just as it builds highways – i.e. state investment in infrastructure.

“Each provider could then pull its cables through these pipes. That’s more efficient. And that would fuel competition.”

Amretsreiter he was not aware of the government responding to the firm’s proposal but it “can still come”.

Vodafone, the world’s number two mobile operator, hopes to increase the number of homes with ultrafast connections by two million over the next year, bringing the total to around 11 million.

If a proposed takeover deal with Unitymedia, a unit of Liberty Global, goes through, this would rise to 22m of these connections in three years, Ametsreiter added.

The firm agreed to pay €19.6bn (£16.7bn) for Liberty’s cable networks in Germany and eastern Europe last year, in a bid to challenge the dominance of firms like Deutsche Telekom.

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Last month, sources told Reuters the EU has not raised any major concerns about the deal, meaning it looks set to go ahead.