Stefan Muhle (State Secretary Nds. MW), Bernd Busemann MdL (Vice President of the Nds. Landtag), District Administrator Reinhard Winter, Gitta Connemann MdB, Arnold Diekmann (Telekom Deutschland GmbH), Jürgen Schneider (Telekom Deutschland GmbH).
Photo credit: LK Emsland
Last week, District Administrator Reinhard Winter, Deputy President of the State Parliament Bernd Busemann, State Secretary Stefan Muhle from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour, Transport and Digitalization, Member of the Bundestag Gitta Connemann and Jürgen Schneider from the expanding telecommunications company put the fibre optic network in northern Emsland into operation at the primary and secondary school in Lorup with a symbolic push of a button.
District Administrator Reinhard Winkler was delighted that he was able to activate the broadband network at the end of his term of office: “High-speed internet is a digital locational advantage – for the economy, the municipalities, but also for every single household.”
However, it is not only households that will benefit from the expansion of the network. Schools, hospitals and other public institutions will also soon be able to use fast connections. The principal of Lorup primary and secondary school, Astrid Düthmann, already has lots of ideas for using the new facilities, as many digital learning opportunities will only be possible with a fast broadband connection.
The final work on the fiber optic network is currently underway. Once the final activities have been completed, around 450 kilometers of civil engineering work will be finished. In total, around 540 km of new fiber optic cables will be laid in this project area and connected to almost 400 distribution boxes on the roadsides.
By the end of the expansion, over 110 million euros will have been invested in broadband expansion in the district of Emsland by the federal government, state, district and local authorities.