On March 7, 2018, the ground-breaking ceremony for the broadband expansion in the third expansion area took place in the south of the Emsland district. As part of the federal broadband funding program of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure(BMVI), 3750 households, 214 companies and 25 administrative buildings will be connected to the fibre optic network. They will benefit from FTTB (fiber to the building) connections, which enable bandwidths of at least 50 Mbit/s for households and administrative buildings and bandwidths of at least 1 Gbit/s for companies.
District Administrator Reinhard Winter, State Secretary Rainer Beckedorf (Lower Saxony Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection), Stefan Molkentin (Regional Manager of aconium GmbH, the BMVI’s sovereign project sponsor) and Mayor Andreas Kaiser (municipality of Salzbergen), representing all mayors in the southern expansion area, gave the go-ahead for broadband expansion in the southern district of the county with the symbolic ground-breaking ceremony. The federal government is providing around 9.14 million euros for this section of the project. The district is also receiving co-financing of 631,000 euros from the state of Lower Saxony from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). The district and local authorities are contributing their own share of 8.5 million euros to the total investment sum of around 27.5 million euros for the infrastructure project. “The aim of our comprehensive funding strategy is to increase the competitiveness of companies and businesses as well as the attractiveness of living and economic areas in rural areas and make them fit for the future,” emphasized State Secretary Beckedorf.
Stefan Molkentin emphasized the increasing importance of bandwidth for private individuals, institutions and companies. This makes it all the more important to expand the corresponding infrastructure today – an important step that the district of Emsland is taking at an early stage. As host, Salzbergen’s mayor also thanked the district of Emsland on behalf of his counterparts for recognizing the signs of the times in good time and acquiring the corresponding funding. Andreas Kaiser was convinced that everyone involved was now satisfied, as the expansion start phase had now been reached. “If all the work is completed as planned, we will be a big step closer to the title of ‘gigabit municipality’.”
Photo: Franz-Josef Evers (Member of the District Council, left), Michael Steffens (Head of Department, District of Emsland, 4th from left), Albert Stegemann (Member of the Bundestag, 5th from left), Rainer Beckedorf (State Secretary in the Lower Saxony Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, 6th from left), Christian Fühner (Member of the State Parliament, 7th from left), Reinhard Winter (District Administrator, District of Emsland, 4th from right), Andreas Kaiser (Mayor of the Municipality of Salzbergen, 2nd from right) and Stefan Molkentin (Mayor of the District of Salzbergen, 2nd from right). f. l.), Reinhard Winter (District Administrator of Emsland, 4th from right), Andreas Kaiser (Mayor of Salzbergen, 2nd from right) and Stefan Molkentin (aconium, right) with employees of the telecommunications companies carrying out the work at the ground-breaking ceremony in the third expansion area of the district of Emsland on 07.02.2018.
Photo credit: Landkreis Emsland