The German Broadband Association (BREKO) comments on the ordinance adopted today by the Federal Cabinet on the minimum requirements for the right to the provision of telecommunications services:

“BREKO is critical of the ordinance adopted today. The Federal Government could and should have opened the doors to guaranteeing basic Internet coverage for everyone as quickly as possible by designing the Minimum Telecommunications Supply Ordinance. With the proposal presented today, it has instead achieved the opposite by deleting the exception proposed by the Federal Network Agency for the inclusion of satellite solutions and replacing it with a regulation that practically excludes the realization of universal service via satellite internet.

In order to achieve the targets for nationwide fiber optic expansion set as part of the key points of the gigabit strategy of the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV), BREKO believes that a change of direction is urgently needed. Without the use of satellite internet for the implementation of basic internet coverage, fibre optic expansion will be further delayed because already scarce construction capacities will have to be reprioritized in order to ensure basic coverage.

Only by including satellite internet will we be able to ensure digital participation for all citizens quickly and unbureaucratically, without calling into question the expansion of fiber optics and thus the ambitious goals for a modern, digital Germany. The Bundestag and Bundesrat must take this into account in their upcoming deliberations on the ordinance.”