Will Existing Telekom Customers Be Affected? Yes.

This translation was generated automatically.

Telekom’s head in Germany in Die Welt:

By 2018, we want to switch completely to IP-based services … Just as nobody will miss the old analog C-network when it was replaced by the digital D-network, nobody will miss the old network in 2018.

The Telekom Wholesale site lists its shutdown plans for the analog and ISDN telephone network (PSTN), and therefore the “old” DSL technology:

• Keep the PSTN for 1–2 years
• Begin dismantling the PSTN over 1–2 years
• Withdraw PSTN interconnection access for other providers’ analog/ISDN networks over 1–2 years

A Telekom spokesperson on DRadio (from 7:20):

… it’s true that we want to switch to IP by 2018, because IP has clear advantages over the old technology. I can’t yet say what the terms and conditions will look like in 2018. … when a customer switches to an IP connection, that’s a new contract, yes.

Timo Hetzel: If they’re switched, that’s the point. They don’t have a choice.

Spokesperson: Nobody is being switched. Customers decide for themselves whether to change their contract or not.

In other words, they have a choice between losing their line and signing a new contract.

Telekom has already started shutting down old phone and ADSL lines (up to 6 Mbit, with ATM technology behind them).

QSC confirms: the traditional landline will be history by the end of 2016 at the latest.

Of course the old equipment will be dismantled as they switch to the new exchanges. Nobody can tell me Telekom will keep a relay switching cabinet around for Grandma Erna just because she hasn’t touched her contract since 1970.