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Fibre optic expansion in Germany 2024

2.9.2024

Important findings from the BREKO market analysis - implications for customer support

The expansion of fibre optics is crucial for Germany's digital infrastructure. The BREKO Market Analysis 2024 provides a sound overview of the current status, key trends and the challenges facing internet providers. In this article, we summarise the key findings and, with regard to customer service, show how technical support solutions can help to meet the growing demands of the market.

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Slower fibre optic expansion despite progress

Fibre optic expansion rate: 43.2% as at 30.06.2024 (increase of 7.6% compared to the previous year)
Growth is slightly down on previous years (minus 1.6%).

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Significance for Internet providers

The slowdown in expansion increases cost pressure and can lead to a loss of market share as providers are forced to optimise their investments. It is becoming crucial to ensure stable technical support and strengthen customer loyalty. Self-service solutions not only offer a way to resolve technical issues faster and minimise support requests, but can also help improve customer satisfaction and support long-term planning. Technological innovations can help to accelerate expansion and utilise existing infrastructure more efficiently.

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More fibre optics in everyday life

Fibre optic connection rate: increase from 18.3% to 22.8%
More and more households are actually being connected to the fibre optic network.

Consequences for support

With the increasing connection rate and the resulting changes in technical conditions, it is essential for internet providers to adapt their support accordingly. Customer-centred, digital solutions that enable users to resolve simple problems themselves are crucial to making support more efficient. Proactive maintenance and preventative measures are also becoming more important in order to reduce the burden on support and increase customer satisfaction.

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Take-up rate: activated fibre optic connections on the rise

Take-up rate: slight increase to 26%

Opportunities for self-service solutions

An intuitive, user-friendly self-service app can facilitate the fibre optic activation process. This not only promotes the use of connections, but also relieves the burden on technical support and increases customer satisfaction. In addition, such a solution enables access to value-added services, increases utilisation efficiency, reduces sources of error and offers customers training and education. Providers can use the collected data to further improve the activation process and scale their support structure to effectively meet increasing demand.

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Germany in international comparison - need to catch up

In an OECD comparison: 36th out of 38 in terms of fibre optic expansion.

The future of customer service

The ranking in an international comparison illustrates the considerable backlog in the expansion of fibre optics in Germany. In order to keep pace with the growing expansion and remain internationally competitive, internet providers should design their support systems to be both scalable and modern. Innovative approaches and best practices from leading countries can serve as a model for optimising expansion and support. Providers should also invest in future-orientated technologies and examine government funding opportunities to improve both infrastructure and customer service. An improved support structure not only contributes to customer satisfaction, but also supports long-term competitiveness.

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Growing bandwidth requirements

Forecast: The average bandwidth for business customers will increase 3.5-fold by 2028.

Technical support of the future

With the growing demand for bandwidth, for example, the technical challenges in the home network are increasing. Internet providers are expanding and optimising their network infrastructure to meet future demand and must also increasingly address the challenges in the home network. The increasing complexity of fault diagnosis requires advanced tools and technologies. It is also important to regularly train the support team and invest in future-proof, flexible solutions. Proactive maintenance and monitoring strategies can help to identify and resolve problems at an early stage. Digital self-service solutions play a key role by enabling users to solve everyday technical problems themselves, thus reducing the pressure on traditional support.

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Sustainability as a growing factor

Sustainability: 68% of the network operators surveyed rely on sustainable solutions.

Sustainability through digital support solutions

Digital self-service solutions can not only help to reduce CO2 emissions by avoiding unnecessary technician visits, but also potentially reduce the consumption of resources such as physical support centres. Utilising energy efficient technologies and promoting environmental awareness are further steps towards a more sustainable telecoms industry. Companies should integrate sustainability goals into their overall strategy and communicate transparently about their environmentally friendly practices in order to strengthen the trust of customers and employees.

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Conclusion

The BREKO Market Analysis 2024 shows that although the expansion of fibre optics in Germany is making progress, improvements are still necessary. Internet providers that rely on digital self-service solutions, for example, can not only increase customer satisfaction, but also relieve the burden on support and operate more sustainably.

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How Conntac can support

Our solutions, such as the customer self-service app MyProvider and the smart field service solution Entry, offer the opportunity to organise your customers' support more efficiently and at the same time reduce the workload on your team. Test our solutions and request a demo!