According to foreign media Light Reading, the German government has unveiled a new strategy to promote the deployment of “gigabit” broadband across the country in the next few years, with the goal of providing fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and 5G services everywhere people live, work and travel by 2030.
In March, Germany’s Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV, later known as the Federal Ministry for Transport and Digital Infrastructure or BMVI) presented its latest Gigabit strategy, which outlined some key goals, including providing Germany with at least one gigabit by the end of 2025 Half of the households offer FTTH network and better mobile network coverage on railway lines. This gigabit strategy has now been adopted by the government.
One of the ways the German government hopes to speed up deployment is to eliminate some of the red tape that often delays deployment of fiber-optic cables and mobile masts. BMDV noted that it currently takes up to four months to process applications to install fibre. That’s partly because there are about 12,000 different departments with different requirements and formats, the department said. The plan will introduce a simplified online system to be standardized across Germany by the end of 2022.
Other policies include exploring different ways of installing fibre, including ground deployment and micro-trench technology. Here, the government is considering the use of overhead lines and wooden poles owned by Deutsche Telekom across Germany.
To improve transparency, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) has been tasked with creating a “gigabit land register” that will act as a central data hub to bundle relevant information on fibre and mobile deployments and make this data available to those who need it its people. BNetzA has also established a Gigabit Forum to facilitate open discussions on the transition from copper to fiber.
Funding is of course one of the bigger issues. The government noted that the telecommunications industry has drawn up plans to invest 50 billion euros in private fibre construction over the next few years. It has now commissioned an analysis to determine which areas need state support for high-speed broadband deployment.
Going forward, the German government plans to actively demonstrate how businesses, municipalities and public institutions can benefit from 5G. In addition, the government also mentioned Open RAN, noting that with Open RAN, reliance on international suppliers can be reduced and 6G can be introduced more quickly in Germany.
