Bonn / Naumburg (Saale), 29.11.2022 The Bundesverband Breitbandkommunikation e.V. (BREKO) and the Mobilfunkinfrastrukturgesellschaft mbH (MIG) have agreed on a cooperation to simplify and accelerate the subsidized development of “white mobile network spots”. To this end, BREKO and MIG have concluded a model agreement on the basis of which BREKO member companies can make their fiber optic networks available for subsidized mobile communications projects.

MIG Managing Director Ernst Ferdinand Wilmsmann announced the agreement at the BREKO Annual Conference 2022 in Berlin: “Our experience has shown that the search for suitable handover points for connecting subsidized mobile masts to fiber optic networks is often very time-consuming. With the support of BREKO and its member companies, we can become faster at precisely this point. I am therefore very grateful to BREKO for being open to our concerns from the outset and for enabling us to negotiate a model agreement within a short space of time. I am looking forward to many concrete individual agreements with BREKO member companies, thanks to which we can jointly advance mobile network expansion, especially in rural areas.”

BREKO Managing Director Dr. Stephan Albers added: “Optical fiber not only ensures ultra-fast and future-proof Internet connections at home, it is also an indispensable basis for high-performance 5G mobile communications. That is why four out of five BREKO network operators are already supporting the expansion of mobile communications by connecting mobile masts with fiber optics. One third of the mobile network sites connected with fiber optics in Germany today were built by our members. We are very pleased to extend this successful cooperation between fiber optic and mobile network operators to subsidized mobile network expansion through our collaboration with MIG. Together, we are closing dead spots, increasing the capacity utilization and thus the profitability of the fibre-optic networks and improving the quality of mobile communications for the benefit of companies and citizens – especially in rural regions.”

Background

Mobile communications sites must be connected via fiber optics in order to make full use of the possibilities of the 5G standard and to be able to reliably handle the constantly increasing data traffic in mobile networks in the future. For this reason, both the construction of mobile phone masts and their fiber optic connection are being funded as part of the federal government’s mobile communications funding program.

MIG is taking a step-by-step approach to promoting mobile communications: After market exploration, it starts site preparations in areas where mobile network operators are not planning to expand on their own. This includes identifying suitable locations for new mobile phone masts in terms of network technology as well as acquiring and pre-contractually securing land on which the subsidized mobile phone infrastructure is to be built. Power connections and fiber optic transfer points are essential to successfully complete site preparation. Only once these requirements have been met does MIG publish a call for funding to which companies wishing to build and operate the mobile phone masts to be erected can apply.

More information on mobile communications funding can be found at www.netzda-mig.de.