The Hannover Region is currently investing heavily in digitalization. In addition to projects and initiatives in the areas of promoting young talent, training and studying to expand digital skills, it is also driving forward the expansion of broadband in particular.
The most populous and second-largest regional authority in Lower Saxony in terms of area is already equipping itself for the digital future. Ulf-Birger Franz, Head of Economic Affairs for the Hannover Region: “Both companies and public institutions benefit enormously from the opportunities offered by digitalization. It promotes the internal and external networking of people, technologies and information and improves the interaction between man and machine via intelligent systems.”
The region is primarily home to companies from the logistics, automotive, energy, information and creative industries. For them, broadband expansion forms the basis for the development of digital strategies and concepts and thus creates the prerequisites for survival on the market.
Broadband expansion as an investment in the future
Companies and citizens in the 21 towns and municipalities in the Hannover Region depend on high-performance broadband infrastructures. It is the prerequisite for economic growth, competitiveness and the use of digital applications, for example in the areas of cloud computing, Industry 4.0, smart home, e-health, e-government and teleworking.
The Economic Development Agency is coordinating the local broadband expansion in close cooperation with the municipalities and cities to ensure that the region is connected across the board and in line with demand. Following the ground-breaking ceremony in Neustadt-Hagen in March of this year, the planned 89 kilometers of civil engineering work is currently in full swing. A total of 39 kilometers of empty conduits are being laid using various installation methods. The infrastructure project is being supported by funding from the Federal Broadband Funding Program of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI). The decision on the final amount of the grant includes 1.15 million euros in federal funding to close a profitability gap. In addition, there is 1.7 million euros in state funding from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection as well as 343,482 euros in own funds from the towns and municipalities in the region.
The infrastructure project in the Hanover region will provide 5,099 households, 286 companies and 27 institutions – including three schools – with connections with data transfer rates of at least 50 Mbit/s.
Federal Plant Variety Office benefits from fast Internet connections
One of the beneficiaries is the Federal Plant Variety Office(BSA), which is headquartered in Hanover. The federal authority is responsible for granting plant variety protection and approval and thus supports the wide range of activities to promote breeding progress and biodiversity in Germany and internationally. The Scharnhorst testing center is located in Neustadt am Rübenberge and is therefore in the expansion area of the infrastructure project. Digitisation plays an important role for the Federal Plant Variety Office in its daily work across various locations. Nora Quett (Head of Communication, Biopatent Monitoring and Quality Management at the BSA): “Effective work at the Scharnhorst testing site is only possible if large amounts of data can be easily moved back and forth between the different locations.”
The Scharnhorst inspection body uses digital applications from the field of agriculture. “With the help of geographical information systems, the plot trials can be planned accurately and precisely on the PC,” explains Nora Quett. A dedicated RTK (Real Time Kinematic) reference station is used to determine the position of tractors and machines for sowing and maintaining the trial sites based on this planning data. This allows an accuracy of up to 2.5 centimeters to be achieved. Good radio or mobile network coverage is required to transmit the correction data. This technology eliminates the time-consuming process of setting up the test facility with lime carts and angle mirrors. The expansion of the high-speed network in the Hanover region through the federal broadband funding program enables the use and simplifies the work of the Federal Plant Variety Office: “We are happy about any support for our cause, as this can make our work even more effective,” says Quett.
High-speed internet in the region leads to better communication options with the customers and regional service providers of the Federal Plant Variety Office. In a recent dossier on digitalization, aconium GmbH shed light on the many opportunities offered by the digital transformation in agriculture (PDF).
Fast Internet as a location factor
Head of Economic Affairs Franz is firmly focused on the great importance of high-performance broadband connections for the region with its companies, institutions and over 1.13 million inhabitants: “This will increase even further in the future. Location decisions will be even more closely linked to the availability of fast Internet connections, as these are a prerequisite for economic growth, competitiveness and social participation.
As a result of the subsidized broadband expansion and the telecommunications companies’ own expansion, a coverage rate of 99.4% of all addresses with the EU, federal and state defined threshold of at least 30 Mbit/s will be achieved from 2019. Around 80 percent of addresses already have a download speed of up to 400 Mbit/s.”
Cover photo: Aerial view of the Scharnhorst testing center of the Federal Plant Variety Office (photo credit: Federal Plant Variety Office). Photos in the text: Ulf-Birger Franz, Head of Economic Affairs of the Hannover Region (photo credit: Hannover Region / Peter Hiltmann). A harvesting machine on the grounds of the Scharnhorst testing station of the Federal Plant Variety Office during grass harvesting (photo credit: Federal Plant Variety Office);