Exploring the FTTx deployment plans of German housing associations

This paper explores which network access technology German housing associations currently use and plan to use in the future. Various alternatives exist, for example fiber to the cabinet (FTTC), fiber to the building (FTTB) and fiber to the home (FTTH). To date, a standard access did not emerge. Major findings of our case studies show that housing associations plan large-scale upgrades to today's infrastructure, i.e. they recognize advantages of high-speed access for their tenants. Instead of working autonomously, they prefer to work with external providers who build, run and maintain fiberglass infrastructures. Currently, housing associations mostly collaborate with cable network providers when re-engineering their network.