Bonn, 07.09.2021

The Monopolies Commission today published its recommendations for strengthening competition in the regulated sectors of railroads, energy, postal services and telecommunications for the new legislative period.

The Managing Director of the German Broadband Association (BREKO), Dr. Stephan Albers, explains:

“The most important key figures for fiber optic expansion are green: demand for Internet connections with high bandwidths has increased significantly, companies’ business models are working and companies and investors are ready to invest a great deal of capital. For the next five years alone, at least EUR 43 billion is available for the roll-out of fiber optic networks in Germany. The financing of the fiber optic expansion is also secured for the coming years Five years ago, there was intensive discussion about how the fiber optic expansion could be financed and which companies would build the networks. Large-scale state funding programs were the answer. The need for this funding has been relativized by the new situation.

This is also the view of the Monopolies Commission in its recommendations to politicians published today, which rightly calls for state broadband funding to be restricted to areas that cannot be developed economically. The next German government must introduce a prioritization in the further development of the ‘grey-spot funding programme’ and use tax funds in a targeted manner for those underserved areas that cannot be developed economically. Based on the high willingness of companies to invest in their own expansion, this is both possible and necessary in order not to slow down the existing momentum. Of course, we are aware that regional differences must be taken into account.

Like the Monopolies Commission, we also call for demand-oriented instruments, such as fiber optic vouchers for areas in which expansion is just short of the threshold of profitability. These can be used to quickly and unbureaucratically create incentives for higher demand, for example by subsidizing part of the cost of the fibre optic connection to the building, the Internet contract or the fibre optic cabling in the building.

It is of central importance that the next federal government formulates realistic and achievable expansion targets. Companies are not afraid to be measured against political targets, but these must be developed and implemented together with the telecommunications industry. A long-term expansion perspective is also an important signal to the construction industry, so that it becomes much more involved in fiber optic expansion and increases its investment in the necessary resources.”