The district of Rottweil is located in the Black Forest region in south-western Baden-Württemberg. With 179 inhabitants per square kilometer, it is relatively sparsely populated – in comparison: The state of Baden-Württemberg has 305 inhabitants per square kilometer. Nevertheless, the district is one of the economically strongest regions in Germany with numerous world market leaders and hidden champions that produce magnet systems, machines, turned parts and ball bearings.
The district is characterized by a high density of medium-sized industrial companies. Electrical engineering and the metal industry dominate. The industrial ratio, i.e. the proportion of value added by the manufacturing sector, is 47%, making it the leader not only among the regions in Baden-Württemberg, but throughout Europe – the industrial ratio in Baden-Württemberg is 35.8%, in Germany 26% and in Europe 20%. But the service sector, which currently accounts for 40 percent of jobs, is also developing positively.
“With an optimal broadband supply, this good starting position should be maintained and expanded, not only with regard to the globally active companies; small and medium-sized companies and craft businesses should also remain competitive and be able to open up new markets,” says District Administrator Dr. Wolf-Rüdiger Michel. The region will soon be one of the first districts in Baden-Württemberg to be supplied with high-speed internet across the board. Back in December 2015, the Rottweil district council unanimously approved the comprehensive broadband expansion as part of the economic viability gap model. As a result, the project was able to move forward with the support of the federal broadband funding program.
District Administrator Dr. Michel emphasizes: “The district of Rottweil was one of the first districts in Germany to take up the new federal funding in autumn 2016. In this respect, we were also ‘frontrunners’ to support the fine-tuning of the funding guideline in close coordination with the telecommunications company and aconium GmbH.” The expansion in the district is being carried out in a total of eight construction phases. The state of Baden-Württemberg contributed around 2.37 million euros. The federal funding program for broadband expansion from the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is supporting the expansion with 5.92 million euros. Over 200 kilometers of fibre optic cable were laid and more than 400 new distribution boxes were installed.
Work began in April 2016 and has now been completed in seven of the eight expansion sections. A large part of the expansion area is located in the Black Forest. The low mountain range landscape with its large forests, considerable differences in altitude and sometimes stony ground makes it difficult to lay fiber optic cables. In sensitive areas – in nature reserves, in areas under the Habitats Directive (FFH) and along tree-lined avenues – the flush drilling method is used. This minimizes the impact on nature and the landscape. In total, around 40 percent of the route lengths in the district of Rottweil will be realized using innovative installation methods.
The 140 kilometers of empty conduit infrastructure provided by local authorities and telecommunications providers will facilitate the expansion, as there is no need for civil engineering work in these areas. As part of the project, a total of 64,000 households and companies will gain access to high-speed Internet. Upon completion, more than 95% of households in the district will have access to bandwidths of at least 30 Mbit/s, over 86% of households will have access to bandwidths of more than 50 Mbit/s and more than 75% of households will have access to bandwidths of up to 100 Mbit/s. “Another central objective of the project is to bring fiber optics to and into the business parks so that the individual companies, depending on their individual needs, experience a significant improvement via the FTTC (Fibre To The Curb) expansion or only need their own FTTB (Fibre To The Building) connection over short distances,” explains Hans Klaiber, Broadband Coordinator at the Rottweil District Office.
One company that is already benefiting from the expansion is Häberlin GmbH. The medium-sized trading company for machines and tools is based in the Ziegelhütte industrial estate in Vöhringen. The proximity to the A 81 makes this industrial estate logistically attractive. Fast Internet access is now another plus point for the location. Since the expansion of the digital infrastructure, Häberlin has been able to access speeds of 47 MBit/s – previously the limit was 2 MBit/s. For Managing Director Günter Häberlin, the new network connection was “a long-awaited, important step. He explains why: “The performance of our connection is extremely important for us: as a retail company in rural areas, our customer reach and frequency are limited. We can now compensate for this with our online store and the use of Internet platforms. The connection enables us to equip our store with image and film material and to exchange plans and images with our customers and suppliers by e-mail in an acceptable transmission time. In the meantime, we have taken on new employees who work online on different platforms at the same time. This would not have been possible with the previous connection! We have also been able to make our internal processes such as ordering and invoicing much leaner and faster: Our ERP system is networked in many places. This allows us to control the entire delivery process better and more efficiently.”
But it is not just the district’s economy that should benefit from a modern digital infrastructure. In order to be future-proof as a region, the educational institutions must also be optimally supplied, as access to fast internet is essential for the education and training of future generations. In cooperation with the school authorities, the district of Rottweil is therefore striving to connect all schools directly (FTTB) with fiber optics. The definition of the take-up threshold for schools published by the BMVI in July 2017 in the guidelines for implementing the directive “Funding to support broadband expansion in the Federal Republic of Germany” has created the corresponding framework conditions for this. The construction work required for this is due to begin this year. The district of Rottweil will continue to drive forward the expansion of digital infrastructure.
The aim is to supply every corner of the region with fiber optics. The comprehensive expansion will create a high-performance fibre optic infrastructure, particularly in the rural areas of the district, which is also suitable for feeding in mobile data. This will enable transport infrastructure and intelligent mobility projects to be connected cost-effectively in the future. District Administrator Dr. Michel sums up the importance of the expansion for rural areas: “A fast network is the infrastructure of the future and a prerequisite for digital technologies that will ensure better networking, particularly in rural regions, and greater participation and added value in all areas of life and work – for example in education, the healthcare sector, services and agriculture. There are promising opportunities for “Smart Country”. With our project, we are creating essential conditions for this enormous potential.”
Photo above: View of the Black Forest region
Photo credit: Tourismus Marketing GmbH Baden-Württemberg
Photos below: Häberlin GmbH in Vöhringen in the district of Rottweil benefits from broadband expansion
Photo credit: Häberlin GmbH