PRESS RELEASE

High-speed internet for underpenetrated areas of the city

City of Halle (Saale) commissions Tele Columbus with the further broadband infrastructure build-out for its schools, citizens and business

Berlin, 27 November 2019. HL komm Telekommunikations GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tele Columbus AG, won the tender of the city of Halle (Saale) to further expand broadband internet in areas which so far were under served. As part of the broadband initiative of the provincial and federal government, the Tele Columbus Group, under its brand PŸUR Business, will connect around 3,000 schools, households and businesses to its fibre-based city network. This will ensure a significant improvement in terms of broadband internet availability for the city's schools, businesses and tenants. Moreover, the project will strengthen Tele Columbus' leading market position in the Halle region.

In cooperation with large housing associations Tele Columbus, under its brand PŸUR, supplies already today more than 100,000 households in Halle (Saale) with TV, Internet and Telephony. In order to cope with the increasing amount of data and at the same time ensure the reliability of the network, Tele Columbus has invested significant amounts over the past 24 months into its fibre-based city network. Homes connected to Tele Columbus network can now enjoy download speeds of up to 400 Mbit/s.

Many households and businesses in Halle (Saale), which have so far not been served by Tele Columbus, still surf via the legacy copper telephony line. Following the acceptance of the tender, the Tele Columbus Group will now expand its fibre-based network towards the areas which have been underserved so far. From 2020 onwards 60 schools, around 2,100 additional households and 800 businesses will be connected with completion planned in 2022. Going forward apartments will be connected with at least 50 Mbit/s, businesses at least 100 Mbit/s symmetrical and schools even up to 1,000 Mbit/s.

The network upgrade will be realised via a mix of different technologies. The households will be connected via fibre into the building or the cabinet. Businesses and schools will receive fibre connections directly into the offices or class rooms (FTTH), thereby providing future-proof accesses to high-speed bandwidth.

The major of Halle, Dr Bernd Wiegand, welcomed the finalisation of the tender: "Halle wants to ensure that all of its citizens, businesses and especially the city's schools have access to broadband internet according to their needs".

Timm Degenhardt, CEO of Tele Columbus AG, thanked the city for its continued trust and assured a timely and professional realisation of the project: "The city of Halle is a role model for building out broadband infrastructure. In cooperation with the federal and provincial governments as well as the housing industry, Tele Columbus Group provides tailored solutions to drive the broadband expansion in Germany".
 

About us

Tele Columbus AG is one of Germany's leading fibre network operators which reaches more than 3 million homes. Via its brand PŸUR, the Company, offers high-speed internet including telephony and more than 250 TV channels. All of this via a digital entertainment platform that combines linear TV with video on demand entertainment. To its housing association partners the Tele Columbus Group offers tailored models of cooperation and state-of-the-art services such as telemetric and tenant portals. As a full-service partner for municipalities and regional utilities, the Company is actively supporting the fibre-based infrastructure and broadband internet expansion in Germany. For its business customers the Group offers carrier services and corporate solutions on its proprietary fibre network. Besides its headquarter in Berlin, the Company has locations in Hamburg, Leipzig, Ratingen and Unterföhring/Munich. Since January 2015, Tele Columbus AG is listed on the regulated market (Prime Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock exchange.
 

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