The broadband expansion for the towns of Netphen and Siegen and the municipalities of Burbach, Neunkirchen and Wilnsdorf in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district in south-eastern North Rhine-Westphalia began with a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony in Netphen-Deuz on Thursday, April 19. District Administrator Andreas Müller (Siegen-Wittgenstein district), Mayor Paul Wagener (Netphen), Mathis Entrup, employee of the regional office for North Rhine-Westphalia of aconium, the official project sponsor of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), representatives of the expanding company and the Arnsberg district government came together in the Netphen district of Deuz.
Mayor Paul Wagener pointed out that Netphen had already been able to connect several districts to high-speed Internet in the past as part of the federal “Rural Development” program. “I am very pleased that we have now participated in the federal funding program in cooperation with the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein and that the urgently needed nationwide expansion is also beginning in the villages that have not yet been connected to the broadband network,” said Wagener. Mathis Entrup emphasized the importance of broadband expansion for the development of rural areas.
One day earlier, the kick-off had already taken place in Freudenberg, a good 25 kilometers away, in another part of the project area. The two ground-breaking ceremonies mark the start of broadband expansion work in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district. By mid-2019, network connections with data transfer rates of at least 50 Mbit/s should be available to more than 15,000 households and almost 800 companies. To achieve this, almost 900 kilometers of fiber optic cable and almost 300 kilometers of empty conduits are to be laid in the coming months. The district-wide expansion will also connect 16 schools and a hospital using FTTB (Fibre To The Building) technology.
A total of over 1.8 million euros will be provided for the expansion project from the federal broadband subsidy. The directive of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to co-finance the federal program will provide a further 1.6 million euros in state funding for the project.
Photo: Markus Menn, Broadband Coordinator, Siegen-Wittgenstein District (l.), Mathis Entrup, aconium (2nd from l.), Giovanni Lo Re, Arnsberg District Government (3rd from l.), Jannik Thiele, MICUS GmbH (4th from l.), District Administrator Andreas Müller, Siegen-Wittgenstein District (5th from r.), Paul Wagener, Mayor of the town of Netphen (3rd from r.) and other participants at the ground-breaking ceremony on the 19.), District Administrator Andreas Müller, Siegen-Wittgenstein district (5th from right), Paul Wagener, Mayor of Netphen (3rd from right) and other participants at the ground-breaking ceremony on 19.04.2018 in Netphen-Deuz, Siegen-Wittgenstein district (North Rhine-Westphalia). Photo credit: District of Siegen-Wittgenstein.