Deutsche Telekom is building more and more fiber optic lines to the apartments. But it is a difficult path to get to the fiber optics. It is important that you, as a tenant or owner, react when Telekom wants to expand your street. We’ll show you what to watch out for.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 This is how you react as a tenant
Tenant of a house
Tenant in an apartment building
Tenant of a condominium (WEG)
Tenants in the housing industry
2 This is how you react as the owner
Owner of a house
Owner of an apartment building
Owner of a condominium (WEG)
Housing industry / administration
3 What if I am with another provider?
The legal situation with fiber optic expansion is complicated. After all, Telekom not only has to go into your apartment with the new line, it also has to go into the house or across your property. For this she needs permits. But whether you can exhibit these and who is exhibiting them depends on whether you are the tenant or the owner of the apartment. And it depends on whether you live in an apartment or a house and who owns the building.
When Telekom expands as part of what is known as push marketing, it has defined an area in which it wants to expand. As a rule, these are not just individual streets, but often entire areas or districts. Your goal then is to connect all houses and apartments as far as possible – preferably with a Telekom contract, of course. But that is not necessary at all, because as part of push marketing you can have a house connection set up completely free of charge and only use it later. But this is only necessary in a few cases.
In order to find out what applies to you and your apartment, you have broken down this guide into tenants and owners of apartments and then broken down the various types of apartments from a legal point of view. Under the corresponding point you will find all the information you need to know if you are about to expand your fiber optic network. By the way: Most of the information should not only apply to Telekom, but also to other companies that lay fiber optic cables . There can only be differences in terms of costs.
THIS IS HOW YOU REACT AS A TENANT
First of all, some bad news: As a tenant of an apartment, you cannot generally give Telekom or any other fiber optic company permission to supply your apartment or house with fiber optics. Still, you can get fiber optic internet . But you need the support of the owner of your apartment. You can find out what this has to do and how you can get fast Internet under the following points.
Tenant of a house
If you rent a house, your landlord is usually a private individual. You should inform them
that Telekom wants to expand your fiber optic internet in the coming weeks or months . Because maybe he doesn’t even live in your city and doesn’t know that his house is in the Telekom marketing area, which is now being developed with fiber optics. Make him aware that he has to give Telekom permission to do so. There are no costs for him and you are also not obliged to become a Telekom customer. Once the line is in the house, you or a new tenant can book the line at any time.
If you order a fiber optic tariff as part of pre-marketing, Telekom will go to your landlord and ask for the usage agreement.
But there are also special cases. In a semi-detached house, for example, there is seldom the construct of an administrator and the WEG assembly. With terraced houses or townhouses there is often one staircase per apartment and each apartment stands on its own like a house, the owners only have to agree on a few things such as the roof or the front garden. This is often difficult for tenants to understand. Ideally, you just ask your landlord and point them out about the free expansion of fiber optics.
If you as a tenant order a fiber optic cable from Telekom as part of the pre-marketing, Telekom will probably approach your landlord. It is easier, however, to sensitize them to this in advance.
Tenant of a condominium (WEG)
If you are renting another person’s condominium, it is important that you inform your landlord as soon as possible about the fiber optic expansion on site. Because the coordination processes in an apartment owners’ association (WEG) are long and, in the worst case, can take a year if the administration does not convene an extraordinary meeting.
It is important that the WEG decides to expand. It can do this in advance of a possible push marketing. As a tenant, it is enough for you to first know that your house is being expanded. If you have already given Telekom an order to supply you with fiber optics, the network technicians will also lay the line in your apartment as part of the expansion. If you only want to switch from a competitor to Telekom later, the technicians will then take action again. But you don’t have to dig deep into your pocket for that. If your house is already basically supplied with fiber optics, but not your apartment, it only costs the usual telecom connection costs of around 70 euros.
If you as a tenant order a fiber optic connection as part of the pre-marketing, Telekom ideally approaches the management of the apartments. The problem: If this only then initiates the approval procedure within the WEG, it is too late.
Tenants in the housing industry
If you have rented your apartment from the housing industry, they are usually in contact with Telekom and other companies anyway. This involves companies such as Deutsche Wohnen, Vonovia and Akelius, but also municipal housing associations such as HoWoGe or degewo and cooperatives. As a tenant, you usually have no influence on whether an expansion takes place or not. Sometimes the companies have already signed contracts with other providers who supply your apartment almost exclusively. In this case, the housing companies usually do not issue a permit for fiber-optic expansion.
THIS IS HOW YOU REACT AS THE OWNER
As the owner of an apartment or a property, you should always bear in mind that an expansion with fiber optics increases the value of your property. Or vice versa: if fiber optics has become the standard, you will have significant disadvantages when renting out if you cannot offer your tenants fast internet. Basically: As the owner, you have to allow Telekom to come into your house. What applies to you in detail depends on what kind of property you own.
Owner of a house
If you own a house, you are usually solely responsible for everything. This means that you are also the contact person at Telekom if they want to lay fiber optics for you. You should agree to this measure in any case. The expansion is free if it takes place in your street as part of the expansion. Neither you nor your tenant are obliged to use the connection. Once the line is in place, you can activate the connection at any time later.
You don’t have to worry about your front yard either – as a rule, earth picks are used for the route from the street to the house and only a small shaft on the house wall has to be raised. The process is easiest for you, by the way, if you actually order a fiber optic tariff from Telekom as part of the pre-marketing.
Owner of an apartment building
In the case of an apartment building, the decisive factor is the legal basis on which the house exists and how it is built. For example, if your apartment is in a terraced house or a townhouse, each connection is often separate, i.e. each house number and each staircase is accessed individually. Here every row house owner has to work for himself. If there is no approval for a house number, Telekom will not move a connection.
In the case of semi-detached houses or multi-family houses that have several apartments but all of them belong to you, one connection per house is sufficient. The Telekom then initially only supplies the cellar of the house with the fiber optic cable. When a resident of the house orders a fast line, the technicians then lay the fiber optic cable further into the apartment.
If a tenant orders a fiber optic tariff from your apartment, Telekom will probably contact you and ask for the usage agreement.
Owner of a condominium (WEG)
Ownership associations are the biggest hurdle for fiber optic expansion. Because here the coordination processes are long due to the lengthy decisions and the owners’ meetings, which usually only take place annually. And the administration can only obtain permission from the owners at an owners’ meeting to allow the house to be supplied with fiber optic cables. But if such a meeting takes place in October and Telekom starts marketing on site in January, the time can be tight. Because until the next meeting in October is probably too late to be connected as part of the bundled expansion. And an extraordinary meeting is often expensive and time-consuming.
Our advice: If you are the owner of an apartment within the framework of a community of owners, contact the administration in advance and request that they put a corresponding item on the next agenda. The owners can then take a decision in advance that they agree to a development with fiber optic cables. If the expansion is then carried out by a company, the administration can directly enter into the dialogue for the expansion.
Housing industry / administration
The housing industry is only mentioned briefly here. If you work in the housing industry for a company or do you work in housing management, you will sooner or later also be confronted with the topic of fiber optic expansion. So it is best to find out in advance which companies are expanding in the area of your buildings to be managed and enter into a dialogue with them at an early stage.
If you are a manager of condominiums, sensitize the owners to the topic of fiber optic expansion and get a decision before an announced expansion. The expanding companies are usually in a great hurry when things get going.
WHAT IF I AM WITH ANOTHER PROVIDER?
Telekom has already concluded agreements with other providers such as Vodafone, 1 & 1 or O2 so that they can access their fiber optic network and market it under their own name, as with DSL. But these agreements are not active. But that doesn’t matter, because a copper line for DSL remains. But you can get a free house connection as part of push marketing. The following applies: It is important that the line is in the building. In the case of multi-family houses, however, the line is only laid in the apartment when there is an order for a contract.
