NetCologne:

International Standard with Regional Commitment

The regional carrier based in Cologne markets products which can easily compete with international competition yet focuses on regional commitment for its customers.

When Werner Hanf, management spokesperson at NetCologne, is asked what is special about his company compared to other telecommunications providers, he doesn’t hesitate with his reply: »Our commitment in the region.« This includes the activities of the Cologne company in the sponsoring of sport, culture and social projects as well as, especially, its local commitment for customers. A survey conducted by Stiftung Warentest confirms that NetCologne customers are very satisfied with their provider – a total of 90 per cent.

NetCologne offers its customers almost all communication possibilities, for example mobile telecommunications. Already since autumn 2007, the Cologne company has been offering customers a value for money complete package consisting of landline telephone, internet and mobile. This also includes telephone calls from the landline number to a mobile and vice versa. The idea behind it is simple – the customer should no longer worry about where he is telephoning to and what this will cost.

Infrastructure for the future

The most popular product for private cus-tomers remains the DSL connection which NetCologne has, already for years, been marketing successfully as a flatrate in a package with a telephone connection. The company, meanwhile, has a market share of 50 per cent in this segment in Cologne making it market leader in the city. With DSL, NetCologne is currently offering a maximum bandwidth of 18 Mbit/s. This is enough for most customers at the moment, »but in a few years such internet connections will be seen as slow,« says Werner Hanf. »Even now, music and film downloads require a high bandbreadth and, in the future, video-on-demand in HDTV quality will become the standard and for this you need fast internet access.«
With the laying of CityNetCologne, a high performance glass fibre network, NetCologne has, since summer 2006, been extending its infrastructure of the future. The network offers bandbreadths of up to 100 Mbit/s and is gradually being laid throughout the whole of Cologne. This makes Cologne the first city in Germany to have such an infrastructure. And NetCologne is the first German provider which is develop-ing this technology to such a large extent and, in doing so, is disconnecting itself from the line leasing with other network operators.

Services via TV cable

NetCologne is also operator of a TV cable network which supplies numerous real estate businesses in and around Cologne. Via cable, »MultiKabel« provides households with more than 300 television and radio stations, including many foreign programmes. MultiKabel is also able to provide telephone and internet services – recently also with a bandwidth of 100 Mbit/s. Together with buildings which are connected to the fibre optic cable network CityNetCologne, NetCologne will, by end 2009, be able to provide a potential of around 230,000 households in Cologne with internet with up to 100 Mbit/s.

As regional fixed network operator, NetCologne supplies the Cologne, Bonn and Aachen (via its subsidiary NetAachen) economic areas with communications technology that offers a promising future. The supply of service ranges from telephone services and Mobile phone network through Internet, Cable TV and data services to complex corporate networks and tailored telecommunications solutions. The company has 780 employees.

NetCologne Gesellschaft fürTelekommunikation GmbH
Am Coloneum 9
50829 Cologne
Phone 08 00/22 22-800
Fax 08 00/22 22-390
info@netcologne.de
Managing Directors: Werner Hanf, Karl-Heinz Zankel
founded in: 31 October 1994
Employees: 778, including 18 trainees
Turnover: 291 Mio. (2008)
Distribution: Köln/Bonn/Aachen (NetAachen GmbH)
Customers: 406,600 (phone & internet) 223,600 (MultiKabel)

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