08 August 2014
Niek Jan van Damme, Germany CEO of Telekom, responsible for innovation and product development, talks about the Drosselkom debate and the future of television.
the person
Niek Jan van Damme, born in 1961, for over five years, serves on the board of Deutsche Telekom. At the same time he is Head of Germany of the Group. Since April 2014, the Netherlands also takes care of the issues of innovation and product development
He began his career in 1986 when consumer goods giant Procter &. Gamble. He was chief marketing officer of the Dutch mobile radio operator Ben, the Telekom 2002 completely took over in 1999. From 2004 to 2009 he was Managing Director of T-daughter in the neighboring country.
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The venue for the interview is chosen with care. It is a brick building in Berlin’s Schöneberg district. Here is one of the sites of T-Labs, working in the new products and technologies for the German Telekom. This fits Niek Jan van Damme. Finally, he is responsible not only Germany-chief of the Bonn-based group, but also for innovation and product development. In addition, the Dutchman is the start-up atmosphere in the T-Lab. Casual and unpretentious, he goes to his job. On the merits, however, it is decided – about when it comes to government assistance for the expansion of broadband networks or a relaxation of state supervision over the telecom.
Niek Jan van Damme, Germany-chief of Deutsche Telekom, is a decidedly relaxed type
photo. Picture-alliance
The Federal Government wants to ensure that 2018 everywhere super fast internet is available. Does it work?
The former black-yellow government has not achieved its self-imposed time-expansion target. For 2018 we have, has the entire industry, better opportunities. But we need to define what is everywhere. Are these really 100 percent or only 98 percent? It will be very difficult to create the last two or three percent, which will probably only be realized through the mobile. We keep the mobile for a very good alternative. With the wireless technology LTE, we can offer up to 150 megabits. Soon we can provide you with up to 300 megabits users even.
And if the policy insists that the fixed network will be extended nationwide?
Then it is exciting. Without public funding that will not work. There’s no business model of how remote villages can be developed with 50 megabits via the fixed network. Here one must be clear that one kilometer civil engineering costs 50,000 to 60,000 euros. It just takes far too long to pay off the investment for it. The Telekom will have opened up around 65 percent of households with the fast VDSL until the end of 2016. For anything beyond that, we need funding. The exact amount depends on many details. One might, for example, broadband cable as power lines on poles laid underground instead. That would push the cost.
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What can bring cooperations with other companies? ‘ / em>
Three years ago I said: Great idea. But time has shown that this is not so simple. There are individual projects with the Daughters of public utilities. But do not bring the great synergies in the development of systems which we had hoped for. This has often easy to do with the fact that working with different technology. We see also that smaller municipal utilities begin to say goodbye to the telecommunications business.
What is the problem?
For it is simply too expensive to pay the staff that the networks operate and maintain. There is an investigation, according to which plans to sell or rent their broadband lines a quarter of the city carriers. As for the Telekom: We get on well with our expansion forward. A year ago we reached with VDSL 35 percent of all households, while today it is 39 percent. And the end of 2016 it will be 65 percent. In addition, the new vectoring technology, which doubles the bandwidth of VDSL to 100 megabits, will bring massive pulses.
So you’re perfectly happy?
That is exaggerated. If we are to expand, then we need to plan ahead. Since prices play an important role. So it would bring a boost to the expansion, if it were deregulation in certain cities, namely where competitors have large market shares.
This will cause an uproar with their competitors.
So far looks the Federal Network Agency only on the nationwide situation, since we have with our market share of about 43 percent in broadband a strong position. But in Hamburg or Cologne we have market shares of less than 25 percent. There, cable operators and city carriers are very strong.
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deregulate means but that the Network Agency you no longer dictates how much you require conduit for the rent of the last piece to the house. Rent from this last mile many of its competitors, however, are dependent. So you need only the price in a prohibitive screw height, already is the competition away …
Stop! So is not that simple. To abuse market power, would not tolerate the supervisory authorities in Germany. We demand that there is deregulation where two parallel infrastructures exist. So usually the cable network and the fixed network. In addition, the regulation should their focus is not put on ever lower prices, but on investment promotion
50, 100 or 300 megabits -., We need as much bandwidth at all
This question comes regularly. The demand is growing. In four or five years we will have applications that we can not even imagine today. We try to always be with the expansion of the networks capacity needs something ahead. Our next step will be the hybrid router. The router comes in autumn and combines landline with LTE mobile. The customer is thus a noticeable improvement in speed up to the maximum LTE speed of 150 megabits the second. That is already really fast.
Do we need long term at all landline yet? The next big technological step should be the fifth generation mobile with bandwidths of more than 1,000 megabits
It was in the history of telecom always moments in which it was said:. Makes mobile everything. I think we will always need the landline. Look at the topic networked cars, best yet with three-dimensional television on board. Since you need very reliable fixed networks, which transport the data from the mobile phone base stations further. This has also recognized the competition otherwise. Vodafone wanted to get completely out of the landline a few years ago with the acquisition of cable Germany they have their strategy completely turned.
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you will have to continue to do it anyway in the mobile phone with a competitor less. O2 and E-Plus join together. Why did the merger welcomed? Because you hope to less competition?
No. We will continue to have strong competition. We have three future mobile network operators on an equal footing. No one wants to be number three. The merger was good because we need more consolidation in Europe. Because Europe’s telecommunications industry must be able to withstand international competition.
China Mobile, the largest mobile operator in the world, has no interest in the European market, sometimes not on the fixed network -Business. And the German Telekom will not even roll up the Chinese market. Is this talk of global competition is not a chimera?
We certainly see that Mexican investors buy network operators in Europe. On the services side dominance from overseas is even more strongly felt: American Internet companies are increasingly providing classical telecommunications services. I mean applications such as short messaging service WhatsApp. Facebook is thinking about introducing voice services. The Group is not subject to German law, as regards the quality of services or data security. They can not do so far, what they want. This has to change. Here we need a level playing field for like services.
Even with tariffs that bring more money into the treasury, because they are guided by how much data will download a client? Keyword Drosselkom.
Since we have last year’s fingers burned us something. But basically we hold rates, which are based on download volumes, for a fair thing. There will always be well flat-rate tariffs with unlimited data, which are slightly more expensive. This system will come not only from us but from many providers.
is the next step that services come in which data with very high speed and reliability are transferred. If you venture on this very controversial topic?
We have different qualities in network services the opportunity to develop new products. I think especially for young companies there are possibilities. A company provides online game that is marketed to a line with a guaranteed high bandwidth. For us the providers involved in the revenues. Customers can decide whether to pay for the extra-fast connection. But that does not mean we degrade the normal Internet services, blocking deals or providers discriminate. That we can not even allow us because then run away customers. There is plenty of competition, because nobody has to be afraid. And if we do not develop these new services, then make the suppliers from the United States.
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What services, for example?
I mean for example a video service: this can continue and free in usual good quality. If that is not enough, you can book HD quality for an extra fee to do so.
and at the same time, new payment rates for feature films and TV series. Become telecommunications or broadcasting future one?
As you know, we are actively Entertain already in the television business. To buy their own content such as TV series or sports programs and offer exclusive, a model can be. But this is very expensive and risky. Because we have a lot of free to air channels in Germany. Therefore, the Telekom was restrained in this field. We rely on cooperation. In the Bundesliga, we are very satisfied with the cooperation with Sky, which is available on Entertain. Nevertheless, we will continue to offer even more of our own products, we have for example already acquired the rights to the National Basketball League.
Man listening to the cooperation partners and Netflix will soon include the highly successful U.S. online video store …
We want to do everything there is to do for television offer on Entertain platform. With Sky and max cathedrals we have made very positive first experience. We therefore talk to all content partners who wish to offer us attractive content that partnership. Moreover, for years to lose the cable company TV customers – even to us. Entertain already has around 2.3 million users. And rising.
Interview: Frank Thomas Wenzel
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