Bonn/Berlin 16.12.2020 The Federal Cabinet today approved the draft of a law to modernize telecommunications law ("Telecommunications Modernization Act" - TKMoG). The Bundestag and Bundesrat will now be involved in the further legislative process. From the BREKO's point of view, there is still a need for amendment in key areas of the law on the way to the future of fiber optics. At central points of the draft law adopted today by the Federal Cabinet [...]

Yesterday evening, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure published the draft bill for a law to modernize telecommunications law ("Telecommunications Modernization Act"). The Federal Government's aim is for the bill to be discussed by the Federal Cabinet on December 16, 2020. Despite some positive amendments to the draft bill compared to the previous version, the [...]

Bonn/Berlin 30.11.2020 The German government's Digital Summit 2020 is taking place today and tomorrow under the motto "Living more sustainably digitally". The focus is on the question of how digitalization can become the driver of sustainability. An important building block of sustainable and climate-friendly digitalization is the expansion of fibre optics as the digital infrastructure with the lowest energy consumption. Digitalization offers [...]

Glocalization: Regional internet nodes as a strong basis for a European digital ecosystem A few weeks ago, the BREKO network operators DOKOM21 and GELSEN-NET as well as TMR from Bochum and the internet node operator DE-CIX presented Ruhr-CIX powered by DE-CIX, the first internet node in Germany to be realized by the merger of three regional network operators and a global internet node operator. As a regional version of the [...]

Fiber optic expansion in NRW picks up speed Bonn/Berlin 18.11.2020 Today's Gigabit Summit NRW clearly shows that the expansion of fast Internet in NRW is picking up speed. It is clear that the majority of the fiber optic expansion in the densely populated federal state is being driven by the forty BREKO companies active there, including local and regional network operators as well as national telecommunications providers. A significant proportion of the projects are [...]

On November 13, 2020, the EU Commission officially approved the German state aid scheme for the expansion of very high-speed broadband networks with gigabit transmission speeds ("grey-spot funding"). The scheme has an estimated national budget of €6 billion, which will be supplemented by contributions from regional and local budgets for the individual funding projects, bringing the total budget to up to €12 billion [...]

Digital fiber optic breakfast NRW: Less bureaucracy for fast networks Politicians and network operators at one table for fiber optic expansion in NRW The recent increase in the fiber optic rate to 13.5 percent communicated as part of the BREKO market analysis20 is a very positive signal for fiber optic expansion in Germany. However, the figure also shows that further efforts and improvements are required in order to achieve the political [...]

New Telecommunications Act sets the course for Germany's digital future BREKO sees useful impetus but also a clear need for improvements for a fast fibre optic expansion Berlin/Bonn, 06 November 2020 The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) today published a so-called "discussion draft" for the "Telecommunications Modernization Act" (TKMoG). The law is intended to [...]

"Recoverability 2.0": Setting levers for digitalization in motion Modernize operating costs regulation, accelerate fiber optic expansion Bonn/Berlin, 28.10.2020 The amendment of the Telecommunications Act and related laws and regulations is planned for this year. One topic that is already generating discussion even before the draft bill is published is the ability to apportion broadband connections via ancillary rental costs. The plans of the [...]

Germany's fibre optic trade fair reinvents itself: Virtual FIBERWEEK celebrates successful premiere First virtual platform for fibre optic expansion since the start of the coronavirus pandemic Over 1,000 visitors from 27 countries every day 50-hour conference programme with more than 100 speakers Important impetus for fibre optic expansion and digitalization Bonn/Berlin, 16 October 2020 With more than 1,000 visitors every day over five days, [...]