Third edition of the Fiber Optic Forum in NRW as part of the E-world Community
BREKO network operators from NRW will invest €2 billion in fiber optic expansion by 2025
North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Affairs Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart honored as the first digital politician
Bonn/Essen 5 May 2021 The Fiber Optic Forum in NRW entered its third round today on the virtual platform of E-world energy & water. Together with partners con|energy and MICUS Strategieberatung, the German Broadband Association (BREKO) invited speakers from industry and associations to discuss the opportunities and challenges of regional fiber optic expansion. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Affairs, Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, opened the event. As part of the “Fiber for Future” initiative, BREKO honored him as a digital politician.

The program focused on regional fibre optic expansion and the role of regional network operators and municipal companies in the fibre optic market. How can regional providers find their place in the fiber optic market and what are the advantages of regional operators? Numerous speakers from industry and associations presented solutions and concepts for success on these and other questions at the fiber optic forum in NRW. Following the cancellation of this year’s E-world trade fair due to the pandemic, the fiber optic forum took place on the virtual platform “E-world Community”. Stefanie Hamm, Managing Director of E-world: “The expansion of fiber optics continues to be an enormously important topic for a large number of our exhibitors and visitors. We are therefore delighted that we have also been able to move this successful format digitally to the E-world Community together with our partners.”

Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Minister for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, emphasized in his opening speech: “Fiber optic networks offer many advantages: They enable high bandwidths over long distances, are resistant to interference and are unrivalled in terms of data security. The BREKO companies are pioneers in fiber optic expansion. The competition also intends to increasingly rely on this technology in the future. Currently, 66% of households already have access to gigabit-capable networks, 16 percentage points of which are fiber optic networks. Based on the announced investments and federal and state funding projects, we can more than double our fiber optic share of households to up to 40% by 2023. This means we are well on the way to connecting all households to gigabit-capable broadband networks by 2025.”

Municipal companies as drivers of fiber optic expansion

Stephan Zimmermann, CTO of Deutsche Glasfaser, gave an overview of the status of fiber optic expansion in NRW. Thomas Eibeck, Managing Director of SachsenGigaBit, presented the current expansion status in Saxony. BREKO Managing Director Dr. Stephan Albers made it clear that the expansion of fibre optics throughout Germany is on the right track and emphasized how important the regional network operators are for dynamic expansion: “The fiber optic market is developing rapidly in all German regions, and there is a high willingness to invest among the expanding companies. The BREKO companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia alone are planning to invest more than 2 billion euros in fiber optic infrastructure by 2025. In order to put this money into the ground, they need the right framework conditions. How the new Telecommunications Act and the new funding guidelines are implemented at regional and municipal level is therefore of immense importance. The focus is on speeding up approval procedures by establishing central points of contact in the districts and cities and simplifying and digitizing the approval processes. When it comes to the question of “subsidized project or self-funded expansion?”, the message “self-funded expansion first” must get through to the municipalities. Funded projects take longer than self-funded expansion projects. The federal government’s funding program should focus on those areas where citizens’ coverage is particularly poor in order to be able to provide expansion prospects here as well.”

Companies from all over Germany passed on their practical knowledge and experience in the “fiber optic expansion business model”. Sebastian Jurczyk, Chairman of the Management Board of Stadtwerke Münster and Hans-Ullrich Schneider, Managing Director of Stadtwerke Hilden, explained in their practical presentations how municipal utilities can successfully enter the fiber optic business segment. Felix Blumenstein from RuhrCIX explained how the Ruhr region is strengthening the regional economy by setting up a regional internet node. In his presentation “Municipal utilities as designers of digital living environments”, Andreas Spiegel, Managing Director of the strategy consultancy MICUS, outlined the additional opportunities that a fiber optic network offers for the business development of municipal companies: “The telecommunications business segment is now on the agenda of a large number of municipal utilities. Like no other market player, they can combine energy and telecommunications as a platform and deliver solutions for e-mobility, antenna sites for 5G, building automation, data centers or smart grids from a single source. The applications can be provided by municipal utilities themselves or, for example, in cooperation with experienced BREKO members. Only with a holistic approach will the potential of fiber optics be fully exploited and a new business area become the basis for future success in all sectors.”

Minister Pinkwart receives award as digital politician

North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Affairs, Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, today became the first German politician to be honored as a digital politician. The award was presented as part of the “Outstanding Digital Politician” initiative launched by the German Broadband Association under the motto “Fiber for Future”. The aim of the initiative, which was launched in May, is to highlight the importance of digital policy and digital infrastructure for all policy areas in the 2021 election year. As part of the campaign, the title will be awarded to politicians who have already provided important digital policy impetus in their political work.

Andreas Pinkwart receives the award for his commitment to the digital strategy of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, through which the state is driving forward digitalization in all important areas and acting as a pioneer in administrative digitalization. Minister Pinkwart is also being honored for his support of North Rhine-Westphalia’s cities and districts in expanding the digital infrastructure. At 16%, the state’s fiber optic rate is above the national average. Almost 80 percent of commercial areas in NRW are connected to fiber optics or are currently being expanded.

As part of the campaign, all (potential) members of the Bundestag and state parliaments are offered the opportunity to find out about the opportunities of digital change in their constituency, in particular the challenges of fiber optic expansion, and to campaign for digital policy issues during the election campaign. BREKO wants to contribute to a future-oriented digital policy in Germany through the “Outstanding Digital Politician” initiative.