DGAP-News: Tele Columbus AG: Tele Columbus equips networks with gigabit capacity

Press Release

DOCSIS 3.1 roll-out started

Tele Columbus equips networks with gigabit capacity

Berlin, December 7th, 2021. Tele Columbus AG, one of the leading fibre network operators, has begun optimising its internet-capable networks for transmission speeds of up to one gigabit per second. The upgrade will ensure that the majority of the roughly 2.4 million households supplied with internet from the PŸUR brand will be able to use gigabit bandwidths.

To date, PYÜR had offered internet speeds of up to 400 Mbit/s in its cable networks. PYÜR launched its first gigabit offer from some 500,000 households in Berlin in August 2019. The Germany-wide DOCSIS 3.1 roll-out has since been initiated. As of today, a further 69,000 households are able to order internet connections with bandwidths of up to one gigabit per second. The first wave of the roll-out saw upgrades of networks in Flensburg, Offenbach and Frankfurt am Main, as well as Aschersleben and Naumburg in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Large-scale posters with slogans like "Offenbach's got it" or "Finally here for you" announced the dawn of the gigabit age.

Special rates for fast internet connections

Customers can start surfing the web at home at lightning speeds with the additional Pure Speed 500 and Pure Speed 1.000 rates. PŸUR has put together a special offer for the market launch, with the Pure Speed 1.000 gigabit rate offered free-of-charge for the first six months after which customers only pay EUR 44 per month instead of EUR 55. The offer for six months of internet access free of charge is principally aimed at all new customers who sign up for the PŸUR cable-internet package on a 24-month contract term. This allows all customers to benefit from the six rate-free months, regardless of the bandwidth they have booked, and also applies to combination products with an additional TV package.

Performance buffers for all applications

Three quarters of all new PYÜR customers already book bandwidths of 200 Mbit/s or faster, and with good reason. The steadily growing popularity of online video offers, which are also increasingly finding favour with older customer households, the success of online gaming that has managed to double weekly playtimes to ten hours, and naturally the trend towards working from home have all played a part in substantiating the desire for stable and super-fast broadband connections.

This leap in speed is achieved through updating the transmission technology to the DOCSIS 3.1 standard. The addition of new transmission frequencies allows for the existing network's transmission capacities to be more than doubled. The cable networks are tested and overhauled in the run-up to the upgrade so as to ensure the seamless operation of the gigabit capacities. All PYÜR cable and internet users benefit from the new and improved quality of the connection. The upgrade campaign currently under way is set to be concluded by mid-2023.

Over the coming decade, Tele Columbus AG will be putting its full weight behind the PYÜR brand, investing EUR 2 billion in the upgrading of networks and the expansion of fibre-optic networks so as to offer PYÜR customers access to the full potential of a cable connection as a viable, future-ready connection to the digital world.

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 200 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.

Disclaimer

This release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements reflect the Company's current knowledge and expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and assumptions may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In light of these risks and uncertainties, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this document.

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