With a symbolic press of the red button in the town hall of Werbach, the first expansion cluster in the Main-Tauber district was put into operation on 21.02.2018. The district town of Tauberbischofsheim and the two municipalities to the north and north-east of it, Werbach and Großrinderfeld, will now benefit from network access of up to 200 Mbit/s.
Mayor Ottmar Dürr was delighted: “In just ten months, 53 kilometers of fiber optics were laid, and 5,600 households now have access to the data highway. The Main-Tauber district is to be supplied with broadband across the board by the end of 2018. To achieve this, expansion is being carried out in a total of nine areas. The ground-breaking ceremony in cluster six also took place on the same day. Bandwidths of at least 50 Mbit/s will be available to around 98% of households and companies in the expansion areas once the project is complete – an important boost for the rural region. A total of 207 kilometers of civil engineering work will be carried out in the Baden-Württemberg district.
The expansion is being carried out using the latest technical methods. Large cable plows and drilling machines are being used to minimize the impact on people and traffic. Costs and resources will be saved by integrating a total of 198 kilometers of existing empty conduit capacity through shared use and co-laying. As part of the expansion in the Main-Tauber district, a total of 790 kilometers of fiber optic cable and 216 kilometers of empty conduits will be laid and 72 new cable junctions will be installed.
The Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure is funding the infrastructure project with 10.25 million euros as part of the federal broadband funding program. A further 4.1 million euros in funding is being provided by the state of Baden-Württemberg. The district is also contributing 6.1 million euros of its own funds to finance the expansion project. The network in the second expansion area is expected to be completed in March. The newly created FTTH and FTTC connections can then also be used there.
Photo: Commissioning of expansion area one in the Main-Tauber district on 21.02.2018 in Werbach (from left): Mayor Wolfgang Vockel (Tauberbischofsheim), Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Reinhart (MdL), Mayor Wolfgang Stein (Wertheim), Mayor Ottmar Dürr (Werbach), Dr. Veit Steinle (Head of the Baden-Württemberg regional office of aconium GmbH, project sponsor of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure), Mayor Anette Schmidt (Großrinderfeld), District Administrator Reinhard Frank, Frank Bothe (Telekom). Photo credit: District Office Main-Tauber-Kreis