How Vattenfall Powers the Smart City of Berlin With an Open Access Network

As the capital of Germany and its largest city, Berlin has long been home to Europe’s most innovative companies, technological advances, and forward-thinking residents. With a long history of pushing the envelope in art, culture, and business, Berlin has a lot riding on the success of its high-speed broadband connectivity. Without a seamless, reliable connection, residents and commercial enterprises are challenged to move as quickly as they’re accustomed to. Dropped connections mean fewer business transactions, slower sharing of digital information, and a vulnerable critical infrastructure.  
 

That’s why Berlin wants to become a smart city. To keep up with its pace, the entire footprint needs to be covered with fast, reliable, and affordable high-speed broadband services. This connectivity enables residents and businesses to take advantage of the benefits of a true digital economy, namely remote work, eCommerce, healthcare, emergency responders, and online education. This flattening of access allows every resident to reach the resources they need, including those in underserved or underrepresented regions within the larger city of Berlin. 
 

But the road to a smart city isn’t set in stone. Every city has multiple options for their digital infrastructure, and they choose what works best for them. In this case, Berlin opted for an open access network with Calix. The project is called Vattenfall Eurofiber, which is a joint venture between the Swedish energy company, Vattenfall, and a Dutch provider, Eurofiber. 

Why Berlin Chose an Open Access Network To Become a Smart City

An open access network offers unique benefits for smart cities. Due to its digital infrastructure, the network is highly scalable and flexible—primarily because multiple service providers can offer retail services over the same network infrastructure. There is one neutral “pipe,” so to speak, that service providers effectively lease. In an open access network, the service providers pay a fee to the network provider to utilize the network and sell retail services from this network. 
 

This setup encourages healthy competition between service providers, giving residents and businesses options when it comes to selecting a provider. It also helps drive down costs and increase quality, as multiple service providers need to offer higher quality, competitively priced services to acquire and keep customers. 
 

Open access networks are best designed as fiber networks. Fiber is incredibly more flexible, allowing for services that can expand in capacity over time as the needs of the city grow. One fiber network can manage the requirements of multiple service providers at the same time, making it the best option for an open access solution.  

Vattenfall Eurofiber’s Unique Open Access Network Focuses on Sustainability

The Vattenfall Eurofiber project is not just unique because it is an open access network. In addition to powering the smart city of Berlin, it’s also focused on sustainability to consider the long-term impacts of the network on the environment. 
 

The project is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and encouraging sustainable practices in its network development. Vattenfall Eurofiber uses 100% renewable energy and electric vehicles in its operations—ensuring that the network itself is not the only thing that will last.

With Calix, Vattenfall Eurofiber Deploys Quicker, Offers Superior Subscriber Experience

Vattenfall Eurofiber partnered with Calix to leverage Calix Intelligent Access EDGE, which is designed to be highly scalable and flexible, allowing service providers to rapidly deploy and manage their broadband networks at scale. This means that Berlin could be up and running quickly, ensuring the smart city was on pace to reach its desired connectivity well within their allotted timeline. 
 

Intelligent Access EDGE also includes advanced analytics and secure network monitoring tools so service providers can identify and resolve network issues proactively, ensuring reliable service delivery and a superior subscriber experience that encourages increased subscriber acquisition and retention. 
 

The choice to create an open access network in the heart of Germany was not an easy one. Yet the benefits of working with Calix on this project easily outweighed the alternatives. For Vattenfall Eurofiber, this project will lift Berlin up as a frontrunner in European smart city development—boosting local economies and increasing every resident’s digital opportunities.

To learn more about Intelligent Access EDGE as an option for open access development in international markets, set up a consultation with our team here at ANGA COM.