Competition is forcing European incumbent telcos to deploy triple-play services sooner than expected, investment research firm UBS concluded today in response to Deutsche Telekom’s announcement of plans to build a 50-city fiber-to-the-curb network.

“Other telcos could follow,” UBS said in a research note issued today.

The German incumbent telco’s $3.75-billion plan is to deliver up to 50 Mb/s of bandwidth to residents of 50 German cities using VDSL by the end of 2007. That could entail 10 million to 15 million access lines, UBS estimated.

DT’s incumbent DSLAM suppliers, Siemens and ECI Telecom, are likely to win contracts upgrading DT’s existing gear to IP, UBS said, while Juniper Networks and Cisco Systems are likely to win edge routing deals. Alcatel, another DT supplier, is more likely to be selected to supply optical equipment for the new network, UBS added.

DT’s plans trail British Telecom’s current pursuit of a $19-billion nationwide next-generation network that includes plans for triple-play services. Among the vendors it selected in April to help supply the network were Fujitsu Network Communications, Huawei Technologies, Cisco Systems, Alcatel, Lucent Technologies, Ciena, Ericsson and Siemens.