The fundamental aim is to operate our networks in the most stable and failure-free manner possible. Major events such as festivals and summit meetings place networks under particular strain. We make sure, however, that voice calls and data are still transmitted in the quality our customers have come to expect by temporarily setting up extra mobile masts or laying additional fiber-optic  cables.

In emergency situations, it is especially important for networks to function properly, so that emergency calls can be made and responses organized. In emergencies, such as floods or large fires, in which network equipment is damaged to the point that cellular and fixed-line services cannot be quickly restored, our Disaster Recovery Management (DRM)(only available in German) comes into play. It operates mobile containers with communications equipment that can quickly stand in for disrupted cellular and fixed-line service.

The disastrous floods of July 2021 damaged large portions of the telecommunications infrastructure in Germany. An interdepartmental task force was established to manage the restoration effort. The team was able to quickly restore operations at 250 of the 300 cellular base stations that had suffered flood damage. A total of 120 base stations had suffered major damage, however, and wireless service for 250 000 people was temporarily disrupted. Cellular capacities were then increased using mobile masts and special antennas fitted to existing masts. As a result of these efforts, cellular service was completely restored in the flood-damaged areas within the space of only a week. In addition, around 97 percent of the some 100 000 destroyed fixed-network accesses were restored by the end of 2021. As a stopgap measure, we provide affected customers with free LTE  or hybrid routers, along with unlimited data allowances for calling and internet usage.

In the hardest-hit regions, existing copper-wire accesses that had been damaged or destroyed were not restored; instead, they were replaced with fiber-to-the-home (FTTH ) fiber-optic accesses. As a result, some 45 000 new fiber-optic accesses were installed in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.

In the interest of even faster network restoration following extreme events such as those disastrous floods, Deutsche Telekom’s DRM team is working to provide a satellite-based mobile base station. Such a station would make it possible to establish a mobile network within just a few hours. This project is currently in its pilot phase in the lower Franconian city of Fuchsstadt. The first trials with the new system have been promising, and it seems as if it will indeed be possible in the future to restore service very quickly following extreme events.