National and international data networks intersect in Frankfurt. All the leading international telephone companies are represented with offices here and offer a perfect infrastructure. The proximity to the numerous companies based here and the excellent universities have made Frankfurt a powerful location for the IT and telecommunications sector.

A 4,000 km long glass fibre network runs through the city. In 2007 alone, Deutsche Telekom laid 450 km of new glass fibre cables to make Frankfurt VDSL-compatible. The technology allows transmission rates of up to 52 MB Downstream. WLAN and UMTS are available everywhere in the city centre.

The central registration point for Internet addresses ending in .de processes around 1 million new registrations a year and proudly announced on 14.04.2008 that it had reached the magic number of 12 million addresses. Commercial Internet Exchange is the biggest German and third biggest European data exchange. It handles 85% of the German and 35% of the European data traffic.

The European Information Technology Observatory provides basic studies and analyses for the European IT and telecommunications markets Deutsche Telekom maintains its International Net Management Center (INMC) in Frankfurt, which co-ordinate and controlle all Telecom nets worldwide.

Transport connections The airport also plays a key role in development of this sector, as a strategic hub in the global air transport network. It gives companies operating in more than one region rapid access to all key markets.