The groundbreaking ceremony for the broadband expansion in the district of Nienburg took place in Duddenhausen on October 12, 2018. For this occasion, State Secretary Stefan Muhle (Lower Saxony Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour, Transport and Digitalization), District Administrator Detlev Kohlmeier, Stefan Gottesleben (aconium project sponsor) and many other project participants and guests came together.
Parallel to the start of construction in the joint municipality of Hoya, the excavators will soon be rolling into the southern district in the joint municipality of Uchte. District Administrator Kohlmeier: “We are delighted to have found a regional partner for the broadband expansion and that the federal and state funding can now start to flow. I am very confident that we will achieve a good result. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the district and the municipalities involved, the award procedure was successfully completed in a very short time immediately after the federal government approved the funding. We even overtook some other districts from previous calls for funding.”
The broadband expansion should be completed by 31.12.2019. The administration is currently in negotiations with the expanding company regarding the specific schedule. “As the client, we will take a very close look and ensure that the telecommunications company makes sufficient efforts and provides all the necessary resources for broadband expansion in the district of Nienburg,” explains Lutz Hoffmann, the district councillor responsible for broadband expansion. A total of around 550 kilometers of fiber optics will be laid in the district of Nienburg. Around 8,300 households and companies throughout the district will benefit from the expansion. After the expansion, 100 percent of the expanded households will be supplied with data transmission rates of at least 50 Mbit/s downstream and at least 40 percent of households with up to 1 Gbit/s. Bandwidths of up to 1 gigabit per second will also be available for schools.
After the expansion, 96.8 percent of the district will be covered by high-speed internet. As part of the tender, the district was divided into two funding areas (North and South). A regional telecommunications company won the tender for both areas. Only fiber optics are being laid in the current expansion. The implementation requires high investments: the district of Nienburg is investing a good 31 million euros in total. The expansion is being financed in part by federal and state subsidies, which are providing a total of 17.4 million euros. Local authorities and the district are contributing 13.8 million euros from their own funds. In addition, the expanding telecommunications company is investing a further 8 million euros itself, so that a total of 39 million euros is flowing into the ultra-modern broadband expansion in the district of Nienburg. The declared aim of politicians and the administration was to make the most out of the available funds.
Photo: State Secretary Stefan Muhle (9th from left), District Administrator Detlev Kohlmeier (7th from right), District Councillor Lutz Hoffmann (4th from left) and Stefan Gottesleben (aconium, 1st from left) with representatives from politics, administration and the telecommunications company at the ground-breaking ceremony for the broadband expansion in the district of Nienburg.
Photo credit: Press office of the district of Nienburg.