BMDV presents key points of the gigabit strategy

At an industry meeting with telecommunications and digital associations on March 17, 2022, Federal Digital Minister Volker Wissing presented the key points of the gigabit strategy together with Klaus Müller, President of the Federal Network Agency, and Bernhard Rohleder, Managing Director of Bitkom e.V.

The central goal of the key points presented by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) is to make fiber optics and the latest mobile communications standards available to every home by 2030. In an interim step by the end of 2025, the number of fiber optic connections is also to be tripled and half of households and companies are to be supplied with fiber optic lines right into the building. To support this goal, the German government wants to establish suitable framework conditions for the expansion of fiber optics and mobile communications. The focus is on the following implementation measures:

• Simplification of construction and site permits. In particular, simplifications for approvals and distance rules are to be introduced for the construction of new mobile phone masts.
• The establishment of new laying techniques in order to accelerate fiber optic expansion in the area. To this end, the standardization of alternative installation methods is to be promoted.
• The advancement of digital and fast approval procedures that can be processed without media interruptions. Procedures that have already been tested by the federal states and local authorities as part of the Online Access Act (OZG) are to be used as best practice in order to make these procedures available to all federal states for subsequent use in the future. Pilot projects from Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are already successfully implementing this in the areas of planning permission and approval under land use law.
• In the area of gigabit funding, from next year it will also be possible to fund the upgrade from copper to fiber optics in areas that already have 100 Mbit/s coverage. Among other things, cluster funding will be used to support regions with a high proportion of white spots in the expansion. In addition, the funding procedures are to be further streamlined.
• The introduction of a gigabit land register: The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) is to be given lead responsibility for this and will receive a package of tasks for its implementation, which was previously assigned to the Mobile Infrastructure Company (MIG).
• In the future, however, MIG will focus on the administration of the mobile communications promotion program as well as the search for and development of mobile communications sites.
• In addition, mobile communications coverage on railroad lines is to be further improved by upgrading the GSM-R standard and coverage via additional repeaters and tunnel supply systems is to be examined.

In order to monitor the implementation of the gigabit strategy, a new committee of federal and state secretaries is to be established, which will meet at least four times a year. An institutionalized industry dialogue will also be established so that the state and the market can work together better to accelerate the expansion. The fully formulated gigabit strategy is to be presented as a cabinet resolution before the summer break in 2022.