Telecoms Annual Report 2024

Year of issue 2025
Date of issue 2025.05.16

The press release was adapted by the Bundesnetzagentur on 19.05.2025.

The Bundesnetzagentur has today published its telecommunications annual report for 2024. The report presents up-to-date information reflecting the development of the telecommunications market in Germany.

Investments in fixed assets

At €15.3bn, investments in fixed assets in the telecommunications market in 2024 were about 3% higher than in 2023 (€14.9bn). The companies’ focus of investments was on the rollout of optical fibre and mobile communications infrastructure.

Fibre connections

The number of homes passed by fibre increased by 3.9mn within a year to 21.8mn in 2024. The number of (active and non-active) homes connected rose from 7.3mn in 2023 to 8.6mn in 2024. At the same time the number of active (ie used) fibre connections increased to 5.3mn, which was around one million more than at the end of 2023. Fibre to the home (FTTH) accounted for about 4.1mn (77%) of these active fibre connections and fibre to the building (FTTB) for about 1.2mn (23%). The FTTH/FTTB share of all active broadband connections in fixed networks grew from 11.2% in 2023 to 13.7% at the end of 2024. 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 2024 fell to 57bn call minutes. The year-on-year decrease was smaller than in previous years. While there was a decrease of 14% in 2022 and of 20% in 2023, the year-on-year decrease in 2024 was about 11%.
Around 148bn minutes of outgoing calls were made via mobile networks in Germany in 2024. This equates to an average of around 115 minutes of calls per active SIM card and month. The volume of calls processed on mobile networks in Germany declined year-on-year by just under 4% in 2024. One explanation for this is the growing use of number-independent interpersonal telecommunications services, in particular messaging and video calling services.

Messaging and video calling services

In 2024, 17.7bn (2023: 15.8bn) outgoing voice telephony calls were placed through messaging and video calling services in Germany. Total call volumes increased to 196.7bn minutes (2023: 175.1bn). In addition, a total of 901.9bn instant messages were sent in 2024 (2023: 891.4bn) through messaging and video calling services.

More data volume in the fixed and mobile networks

In 2024, data totalling around 149bn GB was transmitted on Germany’s fixed networks (without IPTV on closed data networks), which equates to an average data volume of around 322 GB per broadband line and month. Compared to 2023, the volume of data transmitted in Germany on fixed networks increased by around 35 GB per line and month.
According to the Bundesnetzagentur’s surveys, the volume of data transmitted through mobile networks in Germany in 2024 amounted to 9,592mn GB, compared to 9,118mn GB in 2023. The average amount of data used in mobile networks per active SIM card and month rose from 7.2 GB in 2023 to 7.4 GB in 2024. The vast majority (88%) of data traffic on mobile networks took place via long term evolution (LTE), 10% via the 5G network and 2% via the GSM (2G) network.