Berlin, March 17, 2022 “Regardless of whether the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport writes a year in the new gigabit strategy for the completion of the fiber optic expansion in Germany – it has the industry on its side for the fastest possible implementation. However, whether the target set will actually be achieved depends on the measures adopted to accelerate the expansion. Over the next few years, sufficient private sector funds will be available for the expansion of fiber optics to fully utilize the existing planning and construction capacities. That is why the gigabit strategy must first and foremost be an implementation strategy that initiates concrete steps to accelerate the expansion,” says Norbert Westfal, President of the German Broadband Association (BREKO), with a view to the upcoming development of the key points of the gigabit strategy by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport Affairs (BMDV) under the leadership of Minister Volker Wissing.

A central point of the upcoming gigabit strategy is the future design of the funding. In BREKO’s view, it must be focused more strongly on areas that have little chance of being expanded on their own with the help of potential analyses. For a long time, public funding was the means of choice for implementing expansion projects. However, the situation has changed fundamentally, as President Westfal explains: “Fortunately, we are now in a completely different situation in Germany with regard to fiber optic expansion than was the case six years ago when the federal government launched the first broadband funding program. Investors have recently made expansion commitments of around 50 billion euros for a five-year period. This makes it clear that we can afford to use taxpayers’ money sparingly and rely on the financial strength of the market. To ignore this fundamental change and continue as before would be fatal and, in our view, would contradict the goal set out in the coalition agreement of giving priority to self-funded expansion.”

For a sensible dosage of funding, BREKO proposes that a competent, neutral body to be commissioned by the BMDV should analyze where in Germany there is great potential for self-sufficient expansion. The BMDV should define objective, transparent criteria for this potential analysis in close cooperation with the federal states, local authorities and the telecommunications industry. To this end, it is particularly important to involve the industry and reduce the reservations of the federal states. BREKO Managing Director Dr. Stephan Albers therefore suggests: “For a meaningful funding concept that is supported by all stakeholders, it is time to get all parties involved around the table. Under the leadership of the Ministry, the federal government, federal states, local authorities and the telecommunications industry should test the use of a potential analysis in practice and define objective, transparent criteria for this. This will show that this can be implemented quickly and easily using GIS-supported planning tools. We expect the new Digital Minister to make use of new digital and AI-supported possibilities and thus pave the way for new solutions that will help speed up the expansion. This also applies to the acceleration of approval procedures and the use of modern installation methods. We are always available to develop practical solutions.”