Bonn/Berlin 20.04.2021

BREKO Managing Director Dr. Stephan Albers explains the amendment of the telecommunications law:

“The new Telecommunications Act sets important priorities for the decisive stage of fiber optic expansion in Germany, but unfortunately does not use all the possibilities for a real expansion acceleration law. Nevertheless, we are pleased that the legislative process, which is so important for the further expansion of fiber optics, is now on the home straight after a long run-up. A failure of the legislative process would not have been an option.

With the modernization of the apportionability of the broadband connection in the form of a so-called ‘fiber optic provision fee’, the legislator is implementing a BREKO proposal that will provide a strong incentive for fiber optic expansion in apartment buildings. We fought until the very end for our idea to be included in the law. This is now a huge opportunity for tenants and the housing industry to ensure that apartment buildings are also equipped with future-proof fiber optic connections directly to the apartments and that existing copper-based connections are replaced. This will provide the companies responsible for expansion with a practical tool to speed up expansion even more, especially in cities. The only fly in the ointment is that the existing regulation on levy eligibility is not due to expire until the end of June 2024. We would have liked a much shorter transition period so that the positive effect can unfold as quickly as possible for the benefit of the many tenants.

An important milestone for the future regulation of fibre optic networks is the legal establishment of the principle of “equivalence of input” (EoI). The concept stipulates that wholesale customers or co-investment partners have access to the same material and personnel resources as the sales department of the company with market power. This means, for example, that the same databases for information on connections and the same technician resources for provisioning and fault clearance can be used, thereby significantly reducing the risk of abuse of the dominant market position. In short, this means that in future it will only be possible to dispense with regulation if the dominant company implements these requirements on a mandatory basis.

In the area of approval procedures and the use of alternative installation methods, the law misses the great opportunity to finally release the existing brakes. Everyone is rightly calling for an acceleration of fiber optic expansion. However, this also requires an appropriate legal framework, which is unfortunately not being implemented. A real acceleration of expansion could have been achieved very simply by recognizing alternative installation methods as standard.

In addition, the establishment of a coordinating body to speed up approval procedures, which should ideally be set up at the level of the districts and independent cities, is no longer set out in the law as a mandatory requirement for the federal states. Due to the open wording, we run the risk that this really helpful measure will not be implemented as a result. The implementation of the so-called ‘one-stop-shop principle’ would be helpful for the expanding companies in many respects. The coordinating body can act as an ‘advocate for fiber optic expansion’ between the authorities and companies involved in the approval process and help to remove obstacles as quickly as possible. This would have considerable positive effects on the acceleration of fiber optic expansion.

The implementation of the universal service/’legal entitlement to fast Internet’ is also critical. Universal service is not an accelerator of expansion. Self-economic expansion, flanked by a prudent incentive and funding policy, will get us to our goal faster than any state expansion obligation, which ties up already scarce civil engineering capacities. Radio-based solutions such as satellite communication should also be used to enable digital participation as quickly as possible for households with particularly poor coverage.”