On May 21, 2019, the broadband network on the island of Ummanz off the west coast of the island of Rügen went live. Following Tilzow and the port of Mukran on Rügen in summer 2018, the next part of the major project has now gone live in the municipality of Ummanz. Households on the island are now connected with at least 50 Mbit/s.
In addition to District Administrator Dr. Stefan Kerth, Holger Kliewe, Mayor of the municipality of Ummanz, Axel Rödiger, Managing Director of Zweckverband Wasserversorgung und Abwasserbehandlung Rügen (ZWAR), Tim Brauckmüller, Managing Director of aconium, project sponsor of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), was also on site for the activation.
Chancellor Merkel also wanted to take part in the event in her constituency. Unfortunately, this did not come to fruition: the helicopter that was supposed to take the Chancellor to Rügen was unable to take off due to heavy fog. In 2016, Merkel broke ground for the start of the project in the municipality of Ummanz.
The BMVI is funding the broadband expansion on the island of Rügen with more than 27.5 million euros. In addition, the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is providing a good 11.7 million euros in funding, while the local authority’s own contribution amounts to a good 4.5 million euros. This money will be used to complete a total of almost 800 kilometers of civil engineering work. In future, almost 8,000 households, more than 850 companies and eight schools in the region will benefit from the high-speed network connections.
Tim Brauckmüller, Managing Director of aconium: “Broadband is a hard location factor – the expansion of gigabit networks will be the basis for the prosperity and economic development of entire regions.”