Digital and fibre optic trade fair celebrates comeback in the exhibition hall with strong growth
More than 5,500 trade visitors, 230 exhibitors
200 speakers, 70 events in the congress program
Core topics: The German government’s gigabit strategy, accelerating the expansion of fiber optics, sustainability
fiberdays 23 planned for 15 and 16 March 2023
Wiesbaden, 15 June 2022 After two successful days with more than 5,500 trade visitors, the digital and fiber optics trade fair fiberdays 22 ends today with a new visitor record. While the congress program was dominated by controversies surrounding the German government’s upcoming gigabit strategy, practical topics were discussed in numerous seminars and workshops. The more than 230 exhibitors were consistently satisfied.

“‘Finally fiberdays again’ – that was the unanimous feedback from the more than 5,500 trade visitors we welcomed yesterday and today at our digital and fiber optic trade fair. The expansion of fiber optics is in full swing throughout the country and companies, politicians, administrations and associations are working on solutions to equip Germany with real fiber optics throughout the country by 2030,” summarizes BREKO Managing Director Dr. Stephan Albers. “We have responded to the industry’s appetite for trade fairs following the pandemic and expanded the exhibition space to 10,000 square meters and two complete exhibition halls. We are particularly pleased that we have also seen this growth in the number of trade visitors, which has more than doubled. With over 5,500 participants, fiberdays has reached a new dimension.”

Fiberday’s “decisive contribution” to fiber optic expansion

Alexander Handschuh, spokesman for the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, presented the “Future Radar Digital Municipality” survey at fiberdays 22 and emphasized the central role of the digital and fiber optic trade fair: “Communication and cooperation are particularly important in order to expand fiber optics throughout Germany. fiberdays makes a decisive contribution to this by bringing companies, the public sector and municipalities together.”

Core topics of the German government’s gigabit strategy, cooperation and sustainability

On the first day of the trade fair, the main focus was on the right political framework conditions to accelerate the expansion of fiber optics, both in the prominent opening congress with the Hessian Digital Minister Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus and Danla Kluckert, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport, as well as in the CEO panel with Meta Group Director DACH & EMEA Kai Herzberger. Kristina Sinemus and Daniela Kluckert, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport and Meta Group Director DACH & EMEA Kai Herzberger, as well as in the CEO panel with Soeren Wendler (Deutsche GigaNetz), Thorsten Dirks (Deutsche Glasfaser), Stefan Holighaus (DNS:NET), Jürgen Hansjosten (InfraFibre Germany) and Jens Prautzsch (Unsere Grüne Glasfaser). The political representatives and the CEOs of the fibre optic network operators agreed on the necessity of not jeopardizing the current market dynamics and the extensive investment commitments of private players with an excessive public funding policy. The expectation of a “funding tsunami” that would destroy the current successful investor model was discussed several times in the CEO panel. This is because there is enough capital available to successfully complete the fiber optic expansion marathon. Uncertainty caused by subsidized overbuilding must therefore be avoided at all costs.

When asked by moderator Prof. Dr. Jens Böcker for a forecast on the status of fiber optic expansion in 2025, one of the panellists calculated: “We can build four to five million connections a year. In 2025, we will be much further along than we are today, but we won’t be finished yet – we’ll be more like halfway there.”

One of the top topics on the second day of the trade fair was cooperation between companies in the telecommunications industry. The panellists emphasized the importance of cooperation on an equal footing in order to leverage potential synergies between national network operators and locally rooted municipal utilities, but also with the housing industry. The fiberdays audience also showed great interest in the topics of digitalization and sustainability with the presentation of a current study on the sustainability of digital infrastructures by the Technical University of Central Hesse as well as congress contributions on the life cycle assessment of digitalization and the sustainability of regional data centers.