Bonn, 04.11.2024 According to the latest market analysis by the German Broadband Association (BREKO), Saxony-Anhalt has recently made great progress in fiber optic expansion and is well above the national average in terms of fiber optic coverage. BREKO provides the figures and explains the background.

As of June 2024, the fiber optic roll-out rate in Saxony-Anhalt is 54.2% – well above the national figure of 43.2%. This puts Saxony-Anhalt in 6th place in a comparison of the federal states. The fiber optic roll-out rate is calculated from the proportion of households, companies and public institutions that have a fiber optic line at least directly adjacent to their property. These buildings are therefore either already connected to the fiber optic network or could receive a fiber optic connection with limited effort.

Particularly pleasing is the increasing expansion rate in Saxony-Anhalt, which is bucking the national trend: While the fiber optic expansion rate only increased by 7.6 percentage points nationwide between June 2023 and June 2024, it was a full 14 percentage points in Saxony-Anhalt – first place among the federal states. In the previous year, the increase was only half as fast at 7 percentage points.

Saxony-Anhalt is also above the national average of 22.8% in terms of the fiber optic connection rate – the proportion of households, companies and public authorities actually connected to the fiber optic network – at 25.4%, and is in a solid seventh place in a state comparison.

These are the results of the BREKO Market Analysis 2024, which is based on data from all relevant companies involved in fiber optic expansion in Germany. It is therefore representative of the German telecommunications market.

Oliver Ulke, Deputy Head of State Policy at BREKO: “Saxony-Anhalt is doing a lot of things right when it comes to fiber optic expansion. The companies involved in fiber optic expansion have made significant progress here in recent years with great commitment. This success is also based on a very good dialog between the industry and the state government. The central element of this exchange is the fiber optic pact concluded in 2021, which more and more companies have joined. Another success factor is the state government’s consistent support for the roll-out of fiber optics on a private sector basis, as this is making much faster progress than projects financed with taxpayers’ money.”

Magdeburg’s state government is also showing itself to be a pioneer in current challenges such as increasing demand for fiber optics by educating the population about the benefits of the technology and the upcoming regulation for the shutdown of the first DSL networks.

Ulke: “Saxony-Anhalt’s communication campaign on the topic of fiber optics this year was a welcome impulse that has already been taken up by other federal states as well as the federal government. We look forward to working with companies and politicians to further raise awareness of the benefits of future-proof digital infrastructure. As BREKO, we also welcome the state’s initiative to proactively work on a regulation for the transition from copper to fiber optic networks. After all, a competition-compliant, gradual shutdown of DSL networks can give the expansion of fiber optics a decisive boost, which Saxony-Anhalt can make good use of in order to connect the remaining almost three quarters of households to the network of the future as quickly as possible.”

All figures, data and infographics for the BREKO Market Analysis 2024 can be found here.