Urgent industry appeal to digital ministers’ conference:
Fiber optic and mobile expansion need investment-friendly and competition-oriented policies

Berlin, March 28, 2025. Faster administrative procedures, less bureaucracy and investment-friendly and competition-oriented framework conditions are the decisive prerequisites for the rapid expansion of future-proof digital infrastructures in Germany. The telecommunications industry associations ANGA, Bitkom, BREKO and VATM have issued an urgent appeal to the conference of digital ministers meeting today. They are calling for uniform acceleration measures across all federal states and a long-term and targeted funding policy.

Above all, a genuine expansion acceleration law must be passed in the near future that fully recognizes the overriding public interest of fibre optic and mobile communications. The industry is counting on the federal states to support this issue in a future legislative process.

Instead of lengthy approval procedures, a digital notification procedure should also be introduced to reduce the burden on both local authorities and companies. There should also be a consistent reduction in bureaucracy at all political levels by drastically reducing requirements and reporting and documentation obligations. Some good points that could speed up the expansion are already listed in the federal-state pact and must also be implemented urgently.

The recently adopted special fund means that the federal states potentially have €100 billion of the €500 billion available for investment. At the same time, the probable coalition partners in the federal government are apparently currently planning to make EUR 3.5 billion available annually for gigabit funding. More state money in a shorter period of time will not solve the structural problems that are hampering fiber optic expansion. From the perspective of the expanding companies, it is of fundamental importance to instead continue the gigabit funding on a long-term, reliable and targeted basis over the entire legislative period of the new federal government within a financial framework of one billion euros in federal funds per year. Otherwise, there is a risk of a significant increase in costs and a further delay in the pace of expansion – especially as almost 70% of the funding already approved has not yet been used.

Contact:

ANGA Der Breitbandverband e. V., Reinhardtstraße 14, 10117 Berlin
Tel.: 0175 /1599707, E-Mail: corinna.keim@anga.de

Bitkom Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und neue Medien e. V., Albrechtstraße 10, 10117 Berlin
Tel.: 030 / 27576-0, , E-Mail: bitkom@bitkom.org

BREKO Bundesverband Breitbandkommunikation e. V., Invalidenstraße 91, 10115 Berlin
Tel.: 030 / 58580-416, e-mail: presse@brekoverband.de

VATM Association of Telecommunications and Value-Added Service Providers,
Reinhardtstraße 31, 10117 Berlin
Tel.: 030 / 505615-38, e-mail: vatm@vatm.de