On March 23, the ceremonial kick-off for the broadband expansion in the Eifel district of Bitburg-Prüm took place in the Bitburg town hall. The symbolic ground-breaking ceremony was attended by over a hundred participants, including numerous representatives from politics and business, the local and association municipalities, the district and the telecommunications companies involved in the expansion. The Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of the Interior, Roger Lewentz, emphasized the importance of broadband expansion as an opportunity for rural areas and pointed out that the federal and state governments were committed to their responsibility to promote rural areas.
Dr. Tobias Miethaner (Head of the Digital Society Department at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, BMVI) particularly thanked the aconium, the BMVI’s sovereign project management agency, for its work in the context of federal broadband funding. “The commitment of aconium GmbH cannot be taken for granted,” said Miethaner. District Administrator Dr. Joachim Streit emphasized the increasing importance of the Internet for the residents of the district: “With this project, we are taking another big step forward and catching up with the densely populated areas in terms of the broadband network. This is a key contribution to ensuring equal living conditions in our rural area,” said Streit.
In terms of area, the Eifel district of Bitburg-Prüm is the largest district in Rhineland-Palatinate. Characterized by its location in the Eifel low mountain range, it is also the most sparsely populated region in the state. The municipalities in the region have had and still have to adapt to the very steep valleys and deep river valleys of the Eifel. This has consequences for the infrastructure. For example, the road connections between the individual villages must strictly follow the topographical surface structure. The development of digital infrastructure also has to adapt to these conditions. The existing stony soils and the shape of the terrain often make civil engineering work in the region difficult.
Innovative installation methods such as microtrenching, which is planned for more than 30 kilometers in the Eifel district, offer a solution here. This and the planned shared use of a good 671 kilometers of existing empty conduit capacity will save costs for civil engineering work and significantly reduce the restrictions caused by construction sites in the course of the district-wide expansion. Nevertheless, according to current plans, almost 400 kilometers of civil engineering work will be necessary to achieve the project’s goals.
Objectives and progress of the broadband expansion project
The Eifel district of Bitburg-Prüm is one of the first large districts to consistently rely on fiber optics. Since 2010, the district administration has been working intensively with the local authorities to improve basic broadband coverage in the region.
With the launch of the BMVI’s federal broadband funding program in October 2015, the framework conditions were created to provide the district with high-speed NGA networks across the board. After market exploration procedures, the development of a feasibility study and the preparation of further application documents were completed, the Eifel district was able to start applying for funding in the fall of 2016. Initially, the digital infrastructure in the expansion areas North – with the municipalities of Arzfeld and Prüm – and South – with the municipalities of Bitburger Land, Südeifel, Speicher and outer areas of the city of Bitburg – was to be renewed. Two funding applications were submitted for this. The change to the funding guidelines in summer 2017 made it possible to include additional schools in the district in the expansion. A total of 43 schools and five other educational institutions will now benefit from fast network access with data transfer rates of at least 50 Mbit/s.
Finally, the last of the three funding applications for FTTB (fiber to the building) coverage of the seven local communities of Biersdorf am See, Burbach, Neidenbach, Neuheilenbach, Oberweiler, Wiersdorf and Wißmannsdorf (Koosbüsch district) was submitted in autumn 2017. All three applications were approved. Accordingly, the Eifel district of Bitburg-Prüm is to receive a good 16 million euros in funding from the federal broadband funding program for the implementation of the expansion measures. After completion, a total of 19,327 households will benefit from connections with data transfer rates of 50 Mbit/s and more. Network access with speeds of 1 Gbit/s will be available for 200 companies in the district.
The expansion areas are part of this model project and the new digital infrastructure to be created will benefit the measures planned in them. The symbolic ground-breaking ceremony in Bitburg marked the start of a new development phase for the Eifel district of Bitburg-Prüm. District Administrator Dr. Joachim Streit described the day as a “quantum leap in the digitalization of the Eifel district”. The event was accompanied by a supporting program with artistic performances in the Bitburg town hall. Among others, musicians and light artists performed. Visitors were able to find out about various areas of digitalization and digital transformation at information stands and at the “Market of Opportunities”.
Digitalization supports holistic regional development
The digitalization project plays an important role in the development of the region. At the same time, with a view to demographic change and the future design of mobility in rural areas, the district applied to be a model region in the BMVI’s model project for the long-term security of supply and mobility – with success. In the project, the Eifel district plans to identify up to 15 cooperation areas with supply centers to ensure the long-term economic viability of supplying the population. An integrated mobility concept is to be developed that is geared towards the cooperation areas and includes new forms of service and information options. The aim is to develop and test new flexible mobility services and to integrate the mobility concept into the current northern public transport concept of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the new local transport plan to be drawn up on this basis.
Photo above (l-r): Nico Steinbach (Member of the State Parliament), Roger Lewentz (Minister of the Interior and Sport, Rhineland-Palatinate), Dr. Joachim Streit (District Administrator, Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm), Dr. Martin Fornefeld (Managing Director, MICUS), Dr. Annette Schumacher (Member of the Management Board, aconium GmbH), Dr. Tobias Miethaner (Head of the Digital Society Department, BMVI), Frank Bothe (Head of Technology Branch Southwest, Deutsche Telekom) at the symbolic ground-breaking ceremony in Bitburg Town Hall on 23.3.2018. Photo below (l-r): Dr. Martin Fornefeld (Managing Director of MICUS), Manfred Henning (Head of the Regional Office for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland of aconium GmbH), Frank Bothe (Head of Technology Branch Southwest, Deutsche Telekom), Dr. Annette Schumacher (Member of the Management Board of aconium GmbH), Dr. Tobias Miethaner (Head of the Digital Society Department, BMVI), Roger Lewentz (Minister of the Interior and Sport, Rhineland-Palatinate), Dr. Joachim Streit (District Administrator Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm) at the symbolic ground-breaking ceremony in the Bitburg town hall on 23.3.2018. Photo credit: aconium GmbH