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Norderstedt is a popular place to live. Red brick houses, lots of green and a direct border with Hamburg. But what makes this small town really unique: fast internet. All homes are connected to the fiber optic network and can receive data at a download speed of 1000 megabits per second if they wish; not even the metropolises of Germany can reach that speed.
The fast network has contributed to the fact that Norderstedt has developed splendidly in recent years – many people working in Hamburg moved to the suburbs. But some companies also settled here: the European headquarters of the Japanese electronics company Casio or the Beiersdorf subsidiary Tesa. “Our fast internet is a great location advantage for us,” says Mayor Elke Christina Roeder (SPD).
All of this was possible because the city decided in the late 1990s to focus on fast internet. The municipal utility company Wilhelm.tel wired the entire city with fiber optics. “We were among the pioneers at the national level. At the time, the major telecom providers were still making fun of us, ”says Theo Weirich, CEO of Wilhelm.tel. At that time, Telekom also built fiber optic networks in many regions, but often only up to the roadside. Instead, it upgraded the classic copper cables, with which transmission speeds of up to 250 megabits per second can be achieved.
