The telecommunications industry has reacted cautiously to the new federal guidelines for gigabit subsidies, which the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport published on Monday and put into effect. Despite a few good approaches and changes, Volker Wissing’s (FDP) house left the Federal Digital Ministry “left unused important levers for Germany’s faster expansion,” complains Jürgen Grützner, Managing Director of the VATM industry association. This means that “there is not the urgently needed planning security for the rapid self-economical expansion of fiber optic networks by 2030”. According to the federal government, the industry should provide all households with a gigabit-capable connection by then.
The VATM counts among the sensible measures that the previously unserved and undersupplied places should be supplied with fiber optics as quickly and efficiently as possible. From now on they will be pushed onto a “Fast Lane” and the excavators will be sent there exactly first in a periodic manner. “It would have been at least as important, however, to be able to connect the few houses in need of support in one go, where the expansion is predominantly self-sufficient,” Grützner points out. The close interlocking expressly demanded in the gigabit strategy is now threatened with failure “that these houses do not make it onto the ‘Fast Lane'”. It remains to be seen whether the new requirements will contribute to the government’s gigabit targets: Many adjustment screws have not been set correctly.
The new funding program is a compromise between the BMDV, the federal states and the municipalities, “which does not sufficiently take into account the expansion practice of the companies and the only limited civil engineering capacities available”, the Federal Association for Broadband Communication (Breko) also criticizes. Above all, there is a lack of a limitation on the funding procedures running in parallel and an efficient dovetailing with the company’s own economic expansion. Unfortunately, the potential analysis commissioned by the BMDV itself does not play a relevant role in the prioritization of funding measures.
Bitkom welcomes the end of the “first come, first served” principle
Breko sees the planned, but only mandatory from 2024 onwards, industry dialogues prior to market exploration and the limit for funding amounts per federal state as positive. However, instead of pooling funds that are not needed in one year in a single pot, the BMDV should have allocated a proportionately larger share to the states that have not exhausted their funds in the following year. This incentive for a targeted and economical use of public funds is missing. The digital association Bitkom welcomed the fact that the policy had put an end to the inefficient allocation of funds according to the “first come, first served” principle. Now it is no longer about the chronological order of the applications, but according to several criteria. The danger of a new “funding tsunami” still exists, however, since around 3 billion euros a year are “clearly overestimated”.
“We are making gigabit funding better, more targeted and more efficient,” said Wissing confidently. Johannes Schätzl, rapporteur for the SPD parliamentary group, praised the fact that the new regulations also strengthen the so-called operator model. The built network can remain in the possession of the cities, municipalities and districts even after the end of the earmarking, which angers the telcos. The coalition will “continuously evaluate the program and make sure that the funding remains at a consistently high level.” The Greens Tabea Rößner and Maik Außendorf spoke of an “important step towards a nationwide supply of fiber optics”. The parliamentary group is committed to strengthening the operator model, enforcing open access models in the funded infrastructure and “avoiding the superstructure of existing fiber optic networks, which is expensive from an economic and climate protection point of view”.
(fds)
