Telefonica Deutschland, which provides fixed and mobile services under the brand name O2, has agreed on a framework contract with the German Federal Association for Fibre-Optic Connections (BUGLAS) for the accelerated expansion of 5G infrastructure in Germany. The agreement regulates the framework conditions for all BUGLAS member companies to connect O2’s 5G mobile sites with their fibre-optic lines. BUGLAS network operators in over 80 cities have been rolling out and/or operating fibre-to-the-home/building (FTTH/B) connections for years and supply well over one million customers in Germany.optimise network utilisation and avoid overbuild, BUGLAS network operators have agreed to connect their fibre networks to Telefonica’s 5G mobile sites. Such cooperation requires various contractual agreements and to facilitate these negotiations, BUGLAS and Telefonica have pre-negotiated a framework agreement tailored to the needs of the locally based network operators. BUGLAS member companies can now request this framework agreement from BUGLAS and thus cooperate more quickly with Telefonica.

‘We are increasingly connecting our approximately 28,000 mobile sites with fast fibre-optic lines to offer our O2 customers an even better network experience in the 5G era. To this end, we have been relying on successful strategic partnerships for years,’ commented Mallik Rao, CTO at Telefonica Deutschland, adding: ‘With the new BUGLAS framework agreement and the resulting cooperative ventures, we are demonstrating how network expansion in Germany can be driven forward quickly, cost-efficiently, in a resource-conserving and thus in an extremely sustainable manner. The fibre-optic networks of the BUGLAS member companies open additional opportunities for us to connect our mobile sites in numerous cities where our customers use our high-performance O2 mobile network every day. Together, we are providing a massive boost to digitisation.’