1 & 1 relies on Vantage Towers when setting up the network

1 & 1 headquarters in Montabaur

The United Internet brand wants to expand massively.

(Photo: dpa)

Dusseldorf Mobilfunk 1 & 1 wants to challenge the established providers Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica and become a network operator itself. To this end, the company has signed a contract for the use of up to 5000 Vodafone locations, as the company announced on Thursday evening.

The use of 3800 roof and mast locations by the end of 2025 was agreed with the Vodafone radio tower subsidiary Vantage Towers, with the option of expanding to 5000 locations.

“By cooperating with established radio tower operators, we primarily want to use existing antenna locations. This protects the environment and resources and at the same time accelerates our expansion rate, ”said 1 & 1 boss Ralph Dommermuth.

For 1 & 1, however, the agreement is only the first step. The company needs significantly more locations. The Federal Network Agency had prescribed the newcomer to mobile communications to cover at least 50 percent of households in Germany by 2030. According to calculations by 1 & 1, this would require at least 12,000 locations in around 390 cities. The company’s stated goal, however, is to supply the entire population of Germany with its own network, if possible. For the transition period, 1 & 1 has signed a deal with the network operator Telefónica to share their network.

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Ralph Dommermuth mobilizes different areas of his company United Internet for network expansion. The subsidiary 1 & 1 is responsible for the network expansion. The separate subsidiary Versatel is to supply the cell phone locations with fiber optics.

40 million euros start-up costs

1 & 1 estimates the start-up costs for the network development for the current year to be slightly higher at 40 instead of the previous 30 million euros, announced 1 & 1 in a forecast that was also published on Thursday evening. Next year it should be 70 million euros. The investment expenditure will then rise to around 400 million euros after 75 million this year. The company cited the “purchase of antennas, computers and software for the 1 & 1 cellular network” as the reason.

The parent company United Internet wants to increase sales to 5.8 billion euros in the coming year after 5.6 billion euros, which are targeted for the current year. The operating result (Ebitda) should therefore remain at around 1.25 billion euros.

There had recently been discussions between Vodafone and the radio tower subsidiary Vantage Towers about the contract with 1 & 1, as the Handelsblatt learned. Vantange Towers currently operates around 19,000 locations in Germany, which are currently used almost exclusively by Vodafone. Vodafone managers had expressed concern that Vantage Towers would strengthen a direct competitor with 1 & 1. The German boss recently left Vantage Towers, Peter Zehetner, the enterprise.
With material from Reuters

More: 1 & 1 wants to put the competition under pressure with a new technology when building the 5G network. CEO Dommermuth is also taking a risk.

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