Whether at work or in our free time, with friends or in the family, in business or in administration: it was digital infrastructures that enabled us to work and learn in the turbulent and often challenging year 2021, to keep going, to stay in touch and to grow beyond ourselves.
Efficient and sustainable digital infrastructures are the foundation on which the digital society is built – not only in metropolitan areas and large cities, but also in rural areas in particular.
It is therefore all the more pleasing that gigabit expansion continued to make good progress in 2021 despite coronavirus, supply chain bottlenecks and labor shortages: In mid-2021, gigabit connections were available to around 62% of all households in Germany. That is 2.9 million more connections than six months earlier and more than twice as many as at the end of 2018. Germany is therefore well on its way to becoming a gigabit society.
This momentum will increase even further next year: in April 2021, the federal government further expanded its support for local authorities in the gigabit expansion with the new gray-spot program: All connections with a capacity of less than 100 Mbit/s are now eligible for funding – previously, this so-called pick-up threshold was 30 Mbit/s. All funding procedures in the Grey Spots program are carried out digitally via a central online platform, which was also published in April. This ensures greater efficiency, speed and overview in broadband expansion, which is often challenging for local authorities.
Level playing field for gigabit internet
With its federal broadband funding, the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport Affairs (BMDV) supports the expansion of gigabit-capable networks wherever private-sector expansion is not profitable. In this way, the BMDV ensures a level playing field for the expansion of digital infrastructures.
In mid-December 2021, the federal funding program recorded around 2,420 active and completed infrastructure projects, which will be used to implement around 2.7 million new gigabit connections once all work has been completed, including over 11,700 schools, more than 780 business parks and at least 140 hospitals. The BMDV is currently supporting this expansion with over 9.2 billion euros. Together with co-financing from the federal states and local authorities, this has triggered investments in digital infrastructures amounting to around 18.7 billion euros.
Into the new year with more gigabit
The digital future in Germany is created when the federal, state and local authorities pull together. The examples from all over Germany show how subsidized broadband expansion enables digitalization, contributes to a balance between urban and rural areas and creates the conditions for the digital participation of the entire population.
And that is also the conclusion at the end of the year that we at aconium GmbH, as the project sponsor of the federal funding program, hear from the regional offices, the funding advisors and pilots, the administrators and workshop organizers: The great pride in paving the way to the future together with the expanding municipalities.
How gigabit works in the municipalities
The nationwide expansion with gigabit-capable networks is working! In 2021, municipalities and cities, districts and federal states will continue to rely on the subsidized gigabit expansion to create the conditions for their digitization and sustainability projects, strengthen the local economy, modernize research and education and ensure the provision of services of general interest for their citizens. This is demonstrated by countless examples from all over Germany.
- In many municipalities and regions, the future has taken shape in the form of digital strategies, such as the Gigabit Region Stuttgart, the Digital Strategy Hesse, the Digital Strategy for Hamburg and the Strategy for Digital North Rhine-Westphalia 2.0. The common feature of these strategies is that they call for nationwide coverage with a high-performance digital infrastructure on which the future of municipalities, regions and federal states, and thus the future of Germany, will be built.
Digital services of general interest
But it’s not just the big cities, regions and federal states that are forging ahead digitally. With the help of broadband funding in particular, the future is also emerging in rural areas and energetic municipalities that are focusing on digitalization for better regional development, economic development and sustainability.
- For example, the district of Soest is one of five digital model regions in North Rhine-Westphalia that is relying on the subsidized gigabit expansion: the planned digital projects include digital citizen services, an open government and participation platform and several model locations for digitalization and sustainability. The federal government is supporting the district with around 67 million euros to create the necessary digital infrastructure.
- It was only in December 2021 that the state government of Saxony-Anhalt launched the “Digital infrastructures in the structural change region” program. The aim is to create future-proof digital infrastructures, i.e. nationwide fiber optic coverage, 5G mobile network expansion, Wi-Fi, free radio and particularly efficient LoRaWAN networks and data centers. Subsidized broadband expansion plays a key role in this.
- The district of Cham in Bavaria shows how the subsidized gigabit expansion can change an entire district. The expansion work for 18,000 additional buildings is currently underway – in a particularly sustainable way. Local companies and educational institutions also benefit from high-performance fiber optic internet. For example, the company AVL from Roding is researching systems for autonomous driving, and the 350 students at the Cham Technology Campus are investigating how artificial intelligence in combination with mechatronics is changing industrial production.
Innovation and growth
Digital infrastructures not only enable modern working, learning and living, but are also the prerequisite for innovation and growth.
- The model region of Eastern Saxony is using funded gigabit infrastructures for an innovative and unique telemedicine infrastructure for hospitals and outpatient practices in the entire region of Eastern Saxony. The CSS Telehealth Ostsachsen platform is used to network telemedical applications.
- Digital infrastructure is bridging the gap between urban and rural areas. This is evident in innovative places such as the coliving, workation and coworking project Coconat in Bad Belzig in the district of Potsdam-Mittelmark in Brandenburg. In the middle of the countryside, the federal funding program has made it possible to create a networked, forward-looking place where people can work, live and experiment in a modern way.
- A future-proof gigabit supply is an essential locational advantage and a fundamental building block for economic development. In the Kyffhäuserkreis district in Thuringia, for example, the medium-sized technology company EMA-TEC from Sondershausen benefited from the subsidized expansion: “Connecting to a future-proof fibre optic network as part of the subsidized broadband expansion has strengthened our national and international competitiveness,” said managing directors Christian Köhler and Thomas Walther to the aconium regional office in Leipzig.
Agriculture and nature conservation
The digitalization of agriculture not only enables farmers to work more efficiently, but can also help to protect the environment and nature. This is why rural areas in particular need efficient digital infrastructures.
- The subsidized gigabit expansion in Lower Saxony, for example, is helping here. Precision farming, drones and field robots are being tested in the PraxisLabor Digitaler Ackerbau of the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture – Domäne Schickelsheim. Among other things, these trials are based on a 5G network, which will be greatly enhanced by the gigabit network that was laid this year with funding.
- In the Eifel district of Bitburg-Prüm in Rhineland-Palatinate, the subsidized gigabit expansion supports the further modernization of agriculture, for example by networking milk production with milking robots.
- And with the current gigabit development of a sludge pumping station in Schleswig-Holstein, fiber optics is contributing to the intelligent drainage of the entire expansion area: Thanks to the networking, the water level data collected by the plant can be permanently monitored. This is an important contribution to coastal and environmental protection and a preventive warning system against flooding.
- Especially in rural regions, digital participation is a great opportunity to overcome distances, but also a technological challenge in infrastructure construction. The subsidized gigabit expansion ensures that remote and hard-to-reach connections can be equipped with fast Internet. Without funding, Lindenhof in Modautal in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg, for example, which was connected this year, would still be offline.
Digital education
Digital infrastructures are – not only in times of pandemic! – a prerequisite for learning and research and for access and networking between learning and research institutions.
- The gigabit supply of the Burgwallschule Garz on the island of Rügen, which was completed in September, was a milestone for the town of Garz: 300 pupils can now use laptops, tablets and whiteboards on site and enjoy digital lessons in homeschooling.
- At the vocational schools in the Main-Tauber district, the subsidized gigabit expansion made it possible to set up ultra-modern, networked digital learning factories. Here, students can experience how a modern production line is controlled under Industry 4.0 conditions.