AVM (company)
| AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Company with limited liability |
| founding | 1986 |
| Seat | Berlin , Germany |
| management |
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| Number of employees | 810 (2019) |
| sales | EUR 530 million (2019) |
| Branch | telecommunications |
| Website | www.avm.de |
| Status: 2018 | |
The AVM Computer Vertriebs GmbH , the abbreviation stands for "Audiovisual Marketing", is a German manufacturer of products in the field of telecommunications and network equipment (including DSL , LTE , ISDN , wireless and Internet telephony ).
History of the company
The company was founded in 1986 by the four students Johannes Nill, Peter Faxel, Ulrich Müller-Albring and Jörg-Detlef Gebert and is based in Berlin. In 2019, AVM employed 810 people and achieved sales of 530 million euros. The managing directors are the co-founders and shareholders Johannes Nill, Peter Faxel and Ulrich Müller-Albring.
The first ISDN card was sold to companies in 1989 for 4,300 marks. With the introduction of the Fritz! (Spelling: FRITZ! ) And the Fritz! Card , an ISDN card for PCs, had the breakthrough in 1995. It was also the hour of birth of the product logo, a comic-style ferret that adorned all packaging and advertisements. The name Fritz was chosen "because a non-technical name was sought that should also hint at German workmanship abroad with a wink." The ferret has now been replaced and only appears sporadically. The market share of ISDN cards in Germany grew continuously from 1995 to over 80 percent in 2004. AVM owes this mainly to the high quality of its hardware and software. AVM was thus able to assert itself with its products such as the Fritz! Card (ISA, ISA-PnP, PCI) despite slightly higher product prices against competitors such as TELES or Sedlbauer.
At Cebit 2004, AVM presented the Fritz! Box , a combination of DSL modem and router, for the first time . Variants for WLAN and Internet telephony ( VoIP ) were added later . In 2007 the Fritz! Box Fon WLAN 7270 appeared, the most important innovation of which was the support of WLAN Draft-N ( IEEE 802.11n ). In addition to the familiar functions, it also contains a DECT base station and a media server . At Cebit 2009 AVM presented the new Fritz! Box Fon WLAN 7390 model. It contains a VDSL and ADSL2 + -capable modem, a Gigabit Ethernet switch and a WLAN N access point (2.4 and 5 GHz band simultaneously) as well as 512 megabytes of internal network storage and has been available since the end of March 2010 . According to the market research institute IDC , AVM achieved a market share of 60 percent in Germany and 18 percent across Europe with the Fritz! Box . The high market share is explained, among other things, by the fact that many Internet service providers offer a Fritz! Box for free or for a small surcharge when a contract is concluded.
For several years now, AVM has also been active in the field of home automation and smart homes. The Fritz! Powerline and Fritz! DECT product lines offer options for expanding your own network via power lines or measuring power consumption and remotely (automated) switching of connected devices.
The “AVM” in the company name is the abbreviation for “Audio Visual Marketing” and refers to the company's beginnings as a BTX service provider.
Production and firmware
The Fritz! Boxes are partly manufactured by the manufacturer RAFI in Germany. Individual components such as B. Power supplies and circuit boards (unequipped) come from the Far East.
A mini Linux serves as the basis for the Fritz! Box firmware programmed by AVM itself . Depending on the version, the vi text editor can be executed via the network .
Due to the fact that it can be easily changed, a community has formed which creates various modifications (mods). So the Fritz! Box can be expanded with many functions.
However, AVM was of the opinion that changes to the software by third parties were illegal and had therefore filed a lawsuit in 2011 against the software provider Cybits, whose child protection software changed the Fritzbox firmware. A Linux kernel developer (i.e. holder of copyrights to parts of the software that AVM sells with its products), Harald Welte , had participated in the proceedings on the part of Cybits. The lawsuit was finally largely dismissed in November 2011, allowing the software manufacturer Cybits to sell modified software for the devices from the manufacturer AVM.
Products (selection)
ISDN cards
| AVM A1 card | passive ISDN card - the forerunner to the AVM Fritz! Card |
| AVM Fritz! Card | passive ISDN card |
| AVM B1 card | active ISDN card (one line, 2 channels) |
| AVM C2 card | active ISDN card (2 lines, 4 channels) |
| AVM C4 card | active ISDN card (4 lines, 8 channels) |
| AVM T1 controller | active S2M controller (one line, 30 channels) |
DSL router
The Fritz! Box in its smallest version currently available (Fritz! Box SL) is a DSL modem and router with a LAN port and a USB port. The "largest" version includes a "complete network communication center" with Internet DSL connection, telephone system functions (analog, ISDN and VoIP as well as a DECT base station), WLAN and switch functionality as well as the option of USB mass storage (external USB hard drives , USB Sticks ) and / or printer available to the network via USB .
Cable products
AVM has also been developing and producing Fritz! Boxes for cable connection since 2010 . These products were only available as OEM versions through cable suppliers . Since August 2016 these are freely available in stores with the router-free option. All models support at least the EuroDOCSIS 3.0 standard.
LTE products
Since 2010 AVM has also been offering the Fritz! Box for the new LTE (Long Term Evolution) cellular standard . According to AVM, the Fritz! Box 6840 LTE is the first stationary LTE device (broadband via radio) that combines modem, router, PBX and media server in one device. This Fritz! Box enables data rates of up to 100 Mbit / s and supports both LTE frequency bands (800 MHz and 2.6 GHz). The newer model 6810 LTE, which is equipped with fewer functions, appeared in 2012. Both models are not able to receive the frequency range around 1800 MHz used by Telekom for LTE. This means that both Fritz! Boxes can only be used to a limited extent in Telekom's LTE network. At the end of February 2013, a new model based on the Fritz! Box 6840 LTE was presented. Unlike the two previous models, the Fritz! Box 6842 LTE supports LTE on the 800 and 2600 MHz frequency bands as well as the 1800 MHz frequency band used by Telekom.
| Fritz! Box 6810 LTE | LTE modem (800 MHz and 2.6 GHz), router (once 100 Mbit / s LAN and WLAN N), telephone system for Internet (VoIP) via DECT, DECT base, little brother of the 6840 LTE in a new and compact design |
| Fritz! Box 6820 LTE | LTE and GSM modem (800 MHz and 2.6 GHz as well as 3G (UMTS) and 2G), router (one Gigabit LAN and WLAN N), similar to 6810 LTE but with UMTS / HSPA + and Gigabit LAN |
| Fritz! Box 6840 LTE | LTE modem (800 MHz and 2.6 GHz), router (Gigabit LAN and WLAN N, dual band), NAS , telephone system for Internet (VoIP) and landline, DECT base and media server |
| Fritz! Box 6842 LTE | LTE modem (800 MHz, 1.8 and 2.6 GHz), router (Gigabit LAN and WLAN N), NAS , telephone system for Internet (VoIP) and landline, DECT base and media server |
Fiberglass products
| Fritz! Box 5490 | Modem for direct connection to an FTTH connection. Features similar to Fritz! Box 7490 |
| Fritz! Box 5491 | Direct successor to the Fritz! Box 5490 with a GPON fiber optic modem. |
WLAN products
| FRITZ! WLAN Stick N | WLAN USB stick for WLAN N up to 300 Mbit / s |
| Fritz! WLAN USB Stick AC 430 & 860 | WLAN USB stick for WLAN a / b / g / n and AC up to 430 (1 × antenna) and 860 Mbit / s (2 × antennas) |
| Fritz! WLAN Repeater N / G (no longer available) | WLAN repeater for WLAN a / b / g and N (dual band) up to 300 Mbit / s |
| Fritz! WLAN Repeater 300E (no longer available) | WLAN repeater for WLAN a / b / g and N (dual band) up to 300 Mbit / s with Gigabit Ethernet connection |
| Fritz! WLAN Repeater 310 | WLAN repeater for WLAN a / b / g and N (single band) up to 300 Mbit / s |
| Fritz! WLAN Repeater 450E | WLAN repeater for WLAN a / b / g and N (single band) up to 450 Mbit / s with Gigabit Ethernet connection |
| Fritz! WLAN Repeater 1160 | WLAN repeater for WLAN a / b / g / n and AC (dual band) up to 1160 Mbit / s |
| Fritz! WLAN Repeater 1750E | WLAN repeater for WLAN a / b / g / n and AC (dual band) up to 1300 Mbit / s with Gigabit Ethernet connection |
| Fritz! WLAN Repeater 600 | WLAN repeater for WLAN a / b / g and N (single band) up to 600 Mbit / s |
| Fritz! WLAN Repeater 1200 | WLAN repeater for WLAN a / b / g / n and AC (dual band) up to 1200 Mbit / s with Gigabit Ethernet connection |
| Fritz! WLAN Repeater 2400 | WLAN repeater for WLAN a / b / g / n and AC (dual band) up to 2400 Mbit / s with Gigabit Ethernet connection |
| Fritz! WLAN Repeater 3000 | WLAN repeater for WLAN a / b / g / n and 2 × AC (triple band) up to 3000 Mbit / s with two Gigabit Ethernet connections |
System requirements: 500 MHz, Windows 98SE / Me / 2000 / XP / XP64 or Linux
Other ISDN / DSL / network products
| Fritz! Software package is included with the Fritz! Cards | Various programs that expand the ISDN functions of the Fritz! Cards. For example, a file transfer program (Fritz! Data) or an ISDN monitoring program (ISDNWatch) |
| KEN! ISDN / KEN! DSL / KEN! 4 (ISDN and DSL functionality) | Internet proxy and e-mail server with router , organizer and firewall function for small companies and private use. |
| AVM Access Server / NetWays / ISDN / Network Distributed ISDN | A VPN server with a corresponding client program (NetWays / ISDN, the "ISDN" in the name is historically determined, works today even without ISDN), which is also included in the above. Ken! Can “latch in” (but this is not a prerequisite) and allow created users access to the company or private network even from remote locations. |
| VoIP gateway 5188 | A device for integrating VoIP lines into existing ISDN systems with an integrated router. |
| Fritz! Media | Set-top box for video-on-demand systems on the Internet and for television sets, also known as media center box |
| Fritz! Mini | WLAN telephone, other functions: RSS feeds and e-mails, listening to music or podcasts, can also serve as a remote control for Fritz! Media. Due to the high battery load, WLAN telephony was abandoned in favor of energy-saving DECT technology. |
| 1 & 1 NetXXL powered by Fritz! | ISDN connector intended for T-ISDN XXL (or 1 & 1) |
| BlueFritz! | ISDN PBX with Bluetooth access point |
| Fritz! Fon 1 MT-C / MT-D / MT-F | DECT telephones, additional functions: Checking RSS feeds and emails, listening to Internet radio or podcasts. |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ avm.de: Imprint
- ↑ a b c About AVM. AVM GmbH, accessed on March 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Why is the Fritzbox actually called Fritzbox? In: TECHBOOK . July 18, 2017 ( techbook.de [accessed February 14, 2018]).
- ↑ Brand entry FRITZ! . German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA). Retrieved October 6, 2011.
- ↑ = Udo Flohr: Spiegel Online
- ↑ Products. Electronics / EMS. RAFI , accessed January 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Karin Zühlke: Rafi wants to expand EMS sales. With the Fritzbox as a prime reference. Markt & Technik , August 20, 2012, accessed January 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Article in the Linux Weekly Newsletter on the lawsuit AVM against Cybits ( English ) Linux Weekly Newsletter (LWN). Retrieved November 3, 2011.
- ↑ Posting on gpl-violations.org about the AVM lawsuit against Cybits ( English ) gpl-violations.org. Archived from the original on January 12, 2016. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
- ↑ Article at Heise Open regarding the right of the device owner to change the software or to have it changed . Retrieved December 28, 2011.
- ↑ Service portal for Fritz! Fon 7150 on avm.de