On 29 May 2017, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), Enak Ferlemann, handed over 97 funding decisions from the billion-euro federal program for broadband expansion. Municipalities and districts in structurally weak areas will receive up to 50,000 euros for consulting services.
They can use the money to plan expansion projects and prepare application documents for federal funding for these projects. In a second step, the BMVI will make up to 15 million euros available for each individual infrastructure project.
Alexander Dobrindt, Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure:
“The federal program for super-fast broadband is a huge success. The great demand from local authorities continues unabated: we receive new applications for funding every day, which we decide on quickly and unbureaucratically. We are making all municipalities and districts an offer to take advantage of the federal program so that there are no more blank spots on the map by 2018.”
Since the start of the federal program on 18 November 2015, 1,760 applications for funding for consulting services from municipalities and districts throughout Germany have already been approved. The federal program provides regions with network access of at least 50 Mbit per second.
The federal funding program provides technology-neutral funding for grid expansion. The funding rate is 50 to 70 percent of the eligible costs. As the federal program can be combined with state and EU funding programs, the funding rate can be increased to 90%. A total of around four billion euros is available for broadband funding.
For companies in rural regions, digital transformation offers the opportunity to optimize processes and tap into new markets, thereby gaining a decisive economic advantage.
Tim Brauckmüller, Managing Director of aconium GmbH:
“What applies to private households applies even more to companies. Many business applications sometimes require high bandwidths and demand high-performance infrastructures – especially in rural areas! Broadband access infrastructure is needed there in particular to make the location competitive and attractive for companies and families.”
Funding decisions for consulting services handed over on 29.05.2017 (PDF)