AVM GmbH
AVM is a consumer electronics company founded in 1986 in Berlin, Germany. The company produces communications, networking devices such as DSL, ISDN, Wireless and VoIP products. It had sales of €250 million in 2012 with 450 employees. It is well known for its popular FRITZ!Box series.
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| Private | |
| Industry | consumer and home networking |
| Founded | 1986 |
| Founder | Johannes Nill, Peter Faxel, Ulrich Müller-Albring, Jörg-Detlef Gebert |
| Headquarters | Berlin , Germany |
Area served | Germany Europe Worldwide |
| Products | DSL, Cable and VoIP broadband modems, routers, VoIP phone |
| Revenue | Euro 400 Mi. (2015) |
Number of employees | 570 (2015) |
| Website | www |
Products
AVM is popular in Germany. It sells ISDN cards in an AVM line, DSL Cards, routers, modems, WLAN and networking products:
- FRITZ!Box – Home networking for DSL, cable, FTTH and LTE.
- FRITZ!Fon – HD telephony, Internet services and music for the FRITZ!Box.
- FRITZ!WLAN – Range extender and USB WLAN sticks.
- FRITZ!Powerline – FRITZ!Powerline expands home networking via the existing power supply.
- FRITZ!Apps – Applications for smartphones for the FRITZ! range of products.
- FRITZ!Card – Internal ISDN card for the PCI slot.
History
The company was founded in 1986 by four students: Johannes Nill, Peter Faxel, Ulrich Müller-Albring and Jörg-Detlef Gebert. AVM sold its first ISDN card in 1989 for 4.300 Mark (2.150 Euro) to larger businesses. The company's breakthrough came in 1995 with the introduction of the FRITZ!-brand and the FRITZ!Card, an ISDN card for PCs. The name Fritz was chosen "because a non-technical name has been sought which should indicate winking German workmanship and abroad." AVM's market share for ISDN cards grew continuously to a peak of over 80 percent in 2004.
At CeBIT 2004 AVM introduced the first FRITZ!Box, a combination of DSL modem and router, later with Wi-Fi and integrated PBX. Published in 2007, the FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7270 was seen as innovative by supporting WLAN Draft-N (IEEE 802.11n) and containing a DECT base station and a media server.
According to market research firm IDC (2007), AVM had a market share in CPE-Equipment of 60 percent in Germany and 18 percent in Europe.
In recent years, AVM is also engaging in the field of home automation and smart home. The "AVM" in the company name is the acronym for "Audio Visual marketing" and refers to the company's beginnings as BTX service. In 2015 AVM employed 570 people and generated sales of 400 million Euro.
See also
- List of VOIP companies
