How can broadband expansion be accelerated? What political framework conditions need to be created to make cities smart? How can rural areas become more connected? Connected Germany, which focuses on digitalization and networking in Germany, is dedicated to all these questions and more. Every year, the event brings together leading representatives from politics, business, telecommunications and technology in Munich to discuss the country’s digital future and present solutions for infrastructure expansion. The focus is on the topics of broadband expansion, 5G, fiber optics, smart cities and thus the creation of a powerful and nationwide digital network in Germany.
“The industry will be there in full force.”
Dr. Frederic Ufer, Managing Director of VATM, opened this year’s trade fair with these words. With a full team – not self-evident if you remember Connected Germany 2023, which had to contend with a snowstorm. In his opening keynote, Dr. Ufer addressed the challenges facing the industry in 2025. After a phase of nationwide expansion, the focus must now be on customer orientation. He named open access, free competition and the shutdown of copper networks as further aspects that the trade fair will address. His opening was followed by a panel discussion with representatives from telecommunications companies such as Telefonica, Telekom, Huawei and freenet AG. The panellists agreed that approval procedures must be accelerated and expansion processes standardized.
Expertise from aconium in demand
With its diverse focus topics, Connected Germany is also of interest to us at aconium GmbH. Whether broadband expansion, mobile communications, smart city and regions – aconium has many years of experience in all of these areas and provides impetus for the digitalization of Germany. This is why we will be presenting use cases for digital twins at our stand, among other things, but have also put together a team of experts who will be participating in various programme items and sharing their expertise.
How have the market dynamics of the telecommunications industry in Germany developed in terms of digital infrastructure? Where should private financing be prioritized? How can infrastructure be monetized more effectively? These were the guiding questions of the panel “Understanding the Investment Landscape in Germany”, in which Kai Pigorsch, Managing Director of (former) aconium GmbH, participated with representatives from EQT Group, LBBW, Glasfaser Nordwest and Hamburger Commercial Bank AG.
Philipp Brückner, Head of State Consulting at aconium, then gave interested listeners an insight into digital administration. His presentation “E-Government: Services for Citizens from the National to the Local Level” looked at the current state of administrative digitization and gave impulses on how a holistic transformation could take place. It became clear that e-government is more than simply implementing the OZG: services must not only be offered digitally, but also processed digitally within the administration. All measures and regulations should be based on the principle of “digital first”. On the other hand, standard tasks and services must be prioritized for digitalization before focusing on more resource-intensive in-house developments. The key is to build platforms that bundle services and data in order to provide data-based support for a wide range of decision-making processes.
In the afternoon, Ulf Freienstein, Head of Infrastructure Promotion at aconium, took part in the “Rural Networking” panel. The panelists, including representatives from Nokia, DB Broadband and Unsere Grüne Glasfaser, discussed the development of rural broadband connectivity, the role of mobile communications in this and the necessary private and public investment. Ulf Freienstein gave an insight into the current status of the subsidized fiber optic expansion in rural areas, where the expansion is currently being accelerated. As part of the gigabit subsidy, 4 million households have been connected so far, where it would not have been possible to expand the network on their own.
The insightful day was rounded off with the Executive Evening organized jointly with the VATM.
Photos: aconium GmbH / Florian Schuh