Telecommunications Annual Report 2023

Year of issue 2024
Date of issue 2024.05.16

The Bundesnetzagentur has today published its telecommunications annual report for 2023. The report presents up-to-date information reflecting the development of the telecommunications market in Germany.

Investments in fixed assets

At €13.2bn, investments in fixed assets in the telecommunications market in 2023 were more or less steady in comparison with 2022. As in the previous year, the companies were investing most in the rollout of optical fibre and 5G networks.

Fibre connections

The number of homes passed by fibre expanded to 17.9mn in 2023, which is an increase of around 37% over the previous year. However, the increase in the number of active and non-active homes connected was smaller (14%), rising from 6.4mn in 2022 to 7.3mn in 2023. At the same time the number of active fibre connections expanded to 4.3mn, which was around 900,000 more than at the end of 2022.

The share of homes activated among total active broadband connections grew from 9.1% in 2022 to 11.2% by the end of 2023. The prevalence of these connections is still low, largely due to the high level of existing coverage with high-speed infrastructure (VDSL vectoring and HFC networks). The FTTH/FTTB share of broadband connections is expected to increase significantly in the coming years due to growing demand for higher data rates.

Call minutes in fixed networks and mobile communications

The volume of calls made on fixed networks in 2023 decreased by 20% year-on-year to 64bn call minutes, continuing the steady decline that was interrupted by the pandemic.

Around 153.5bn minutes of outgoing calls were made via mobile networks in Germany in 2023. This equates to an average of around 122 minutes of calls a month made with each active SIM profile. The overall volume of calls processed on mobile networks in Germany declined year-on-year by just under 4% in 2023. One explanation for this is the growing use of number-independent interpersonal telecommunications services, in particular video and messaging calls.

Messaging and video calling services

The volume of communications that took place through messaging and video calling services showed continued growth. In 2023, 15.8bn (2022: 13.3bn) voice telephony calls were placed and 8.2bn (2022: 7.7bn) outgoing video calls were placed through messaging and video calling services. The respective call volumes increased to 175.1bn (2022: 121.0 billion) voice telephony minutes and 176.4bn (2022: 143.2bn) video calling minutes. In addition, a total of 891.4bn instant messages were sent in 2023 (2022: 805.4bn) through messaging and video calling services.

More data volume in the fixed and mobile networks

In 2023, data totalling around 132bn GB was transmitted on Germany's fixed networks, which equates to an average data volume of around 287 GB per line per month. Compared to 2022, the volume of data transmitted in Germany on fixed networks increased by around 11bn GB.

The average amount of data used per active SIM profile per month rose in 2023 by about 36% year-on-year to 7.2 GB. According to surveys conducted by the Bundesnetzagentur, the volume of data transmitted through mobile networks in Germany in 2023 amounted to 9,118mn GB, compared to 6,714mn GB in 2022. The vast majority (91%) of data traffic took place via long term evolution (LTE), 6% via the 5G network and 3% via the GSM network (2G).