Press Releases

Record sized gigabit network development at Telekom in 2021

Budapest, February 16, 2022 09:00

Telekom offers gigabit speeds already to more than 3 million homes and businesses

  • In 2021, Magyar Telekom continued to develop its gigabit network intensively: they constructed 401,000 new optical accesses and upgraded 40,000 cable access points to gigabit capability.
  • This means that Telekom offers gigabit speeds already to more than 3 million homes and businesses, meaning that 69% of the points covered by Telekom are already capable of theoretical gigabit speeds.
  • The optical network is currently available in 1150 settlements.
  • More than one million customers are already connected to Telekom's gigabit network.
  • In the spirit of modernization, Telekom disconnected its copper network in 100 settlements last year.
  • According to plans, the development of Telekom's gigabit network will continue vigorously in 2022.
  • In the past six years Magyar Telekom spent more than HUF 300 billion on the infrastructure development of the company’s mobile and fixed network in Hungary.

Despite the protracted pandemic, Magyar Telekom's fixed network development continued last year with the originally planned intensity, the service provider covered 401,000 new access points with gigabit-capable optical technology in one year. This annual development volume is also a record for Magyar Telekom, and it represents a performance not only unique in Hungary, but also within the Deutsche Telekom Group.

As in previous years, both (large) urban and small-town areas were the site of modern, future proof, optical technology developments. Based on the size of the settlement, taking into account the two extremes of the scale, it can be highlighted that 156 thousand new optical access points were established in Budapest and county capitals, and 169 thousand in small settlements (under 5,000 households). An important aspect was the development of the north-eastern part of the country with less modern infrastructure, here (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Heves, Nógrád, partly in Pest county) Telekom built 100 thousand new optical access points.

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Telekom currently has an optical network (with partial or full coverage) in a total of 1150 settlements. Of these, 820 settlements have an optical coverage of over 80%.

The developments also affected the cable network (CATV, coaxial network). Last year, Telekom rendered its existing cable network gigabit-capable at 40,000 access points to better serve the growing speed needs of customers.

Lubor Zatko, Chief Technology and IT Officer of Magyar Telekom, said: “The pandemic was a major factor last year as well, but despite the shortage of manpower and the difficulties in the supply chains, we managed to implement our large-scale development plans with forward planning. Thus, we now offer gigabit speeds to more than 3 million homes and businesses, meaning that gigabit capacity is now available on 69% of our own network. The positive reception of our developments is shown by the fact that more than one million of our customers are already connected to our gigabit-capable fixed networks. This year, we will continue to develop our network with similar momentum, in order to make our gigabit network, and the services accessible through it, available to as many families and businesses as possible.”

In addition to network development, in 2021, in order to modernize, Telekom disconnected the copper network, representing older technology, in 100 settlements. As a result of the replacement of the copper network, there is less possibility of technical faults and operation has become greener with less energy consumption due to the disconnected copper equipment.