Up to 1GBit/s – Highspeed Internet from O₂ for even more households:Telefónica Deutschland and Tele Columbus cooperate on cable & fiber connections

Telefónica Deutschland will be able to offer even more customers highspeed Internet via fixed network in future via its core brand O₂. The Munich-based company is working closely with Tele Columbus to achieve this: As part of a cooperation agreement, Telefónica Deutschland will receive long-term access to the provider's cable and fiber networks. Tele Columbus currently reaches 2.3 million households via its cable and fiber optic networks with IP products, making it one of the leading fiber network operators in Germany. Through this cooperation, Telefónica Deutschland is once again significantly expanding its offering of high-speed Internet in the fixed network for O₂ customers. The agreement allows customers to provide data speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s in the future.

"Thanks to the cooperation with Tele Columbus, Telefónica Deutschland will have the largest broadband network coverage of all providers in Germany," says Alfons Lösing, Chief Partner and Wholesale Officer and Board Member of Telefónica Deutschland. "This cooperation once again underpins our strategy of offering customers highly attractive products at very fair prices through smart partnerships. Thanks to the proven cooperation with other providers, we already have an extensive infrastructure product portfolio in the fixed-network segment. This is the ideal basis for us to provide innovative products and convergent services. Now we're taking the next step and making the gigabit age a reality for O₂ customers." Intelligent partnerships are a central component of Telefónica Deutschland's vision to become the "Mobile Customer & Digital Champion". Already in May the company had concluded a nationwide fixed-network agreement with Vodafone, which can provide higher speeds than with VDSL.

In addition, the company has been cooperating extensively with Deutsche Telekom in the fixed-network business for many years. The partnership now agreed with Tele Columbus strengthens Telefónica Deutschlands position for access to future-proof fixed-network infrastructure. With this cooperation, Telefónica Deutschland is underlying its ambition as an integrated telecommunications provider and to offer retail and business customers fixed-network and DSL services in addition to mobile communications services via its O₂ brand. Many of the Company's product innovations are based on this platform: Convergent tariffs have long been part of the product range. With O₂ My All in One, for example, O₂ customers can surf the Internet at home and on the move at high speed. With O₂ TV, Telefónica Deutschland also has an IPTV solution that enables customers to stream top-quality content smoothly via Smart TV, Smartphone and Tablet.