Subsidized broadband roll-out in Mansfeld-Südharz on the starting blocks
- Telekom will provide the district of Mansfeld-Südharz with fiber optic infrastructure
- Speeds up to 1 Gbit/s available
- More than 25,000 households and more than 1,600 businesses benefit
The enhancement of broadband services in the district of Mansfeld-Südharz has now been given the green light. Since the district’s current administrative officer, Dr. Angelika Klein, recently exchanged contracts with Deutsche Telekom AG, tasking it with developing the broadband available in this “underserved area”*, the signal is now “go” for much improved bandwidths.
The company will be submitting its work schedule on April 12, 2018 in the district for approval by local representatives.
The upgrade project is due to be completed by the end of 2019. From that time on, every resident of the district will have access to a broadband line (of at least 50 Mbit/s), and every business at least 100 Mbit/s.
Some 25,189 private households, 1,613 businesses and 31 public institutions (including schools and hospitals) in the district will benefit from the upgrade.
Dr. Klein pronounced herself delighted and relieved:
“This is great news for our local residents and businesses: the work can finally begin! I’m delighted that we can now draw a line under this stalemate through this exchange of contracts. It’s been a year now since I received preliminary approval from the Regional and Federal Government, but yet the due diligence and award of the final decision by the Federal and Regional authorities has been dragging on for months. That sort of delay makes no sense to the people and businesses in our district.”
Dr. Vesta von Bossel, Telekom Board Representative for Broadband Roll-Out added, "We are thrilled that the district has placed its trust in us. We install more optical fiber than any other company in Germany. We are the fiber-optic experts! Mansfeld-Südharz district and its customers will also enjoy the benefits of this expertise very soon."
There is now a total fund of 4.3 million euros in place for the district from two funding programs.
ELER funding
The broadband build-out in the rural parts of Mansfeld-Südharz district will be financed by a fund of the Federal Republic of Germany administered according to the rules on support funding for broadband development in the Federal Republic as well as by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).
The aim of the upgrade is to provide a blanket “next generation access” (NGA) broadband network with minimum download speeds of 50 Mbit/s in 17,645 private households and 15 institutional customers (including schools and hospitals) as well as symmetrical speeds of 100 Mbit/s in designated business parks, benefiting 197 businesses.
EFRE funding
The broadband build-out in the urban areas of the district will be financed by a fund of the Federal Republic of Germany administered according to the rules on support funding for broadband development in the Federal Republic, as well as by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
The goal of this effort is to provide a blanket “next generation access” (NGA) broadband network with minimum download speeds of 50 Mbit/s in 7,544 private households and 16 institutional customers (including schools and hospitals) as well as symmetrical speeds of 100 Mbit/s in designated business parks, benefiting 1,416 businesses.
* In principle, funding can be provided for high-performance broadband connections only if there is a detectable profitability gap concerning the development of fast Internet connections (for an underserved area). What this means is that a network build-out funded by the network operator itself must be economically unfeasible before public money can be provided. Nor can areas that already have bandwidths of at least 30 Mbit/s receive any public funding.
Background
In Mansfeld-Südharz, before any planning work could commence, the areas in which Deutsche Telekom AG is already set to develop the network in the regular way over the next number of years had to be identified. There can be no funding for these areas. Then the areas in which there is a profitability gap with regard to network development have to be identified. For such areas, a competitive public process was opened to find a telecommunications provider capable of doing the required development with this financial support. Deutsche Telekom AG was awarded the contract for the district. According to the local authority, Deutsche Telekom AG as the main contractor will be using a variety of subcontractors for the extension work.
The current status of the job and the provision in each of the district’s municipalities can be viewed on the local authority’s website at these addresses:
www.mansfeldsuedharz.de/de/breitbandausbau-mit-eler.html
www.mansfeldsuedharz.de/de/breitbandausbau-mit-efre.html
The long-term goal of the Regional Government is – after having reached the intermediate aim of 50 Mbit/s speeds across the whole state– to have the entire territory covered by the fiber-optic network by 2030, facilitating data transfer at speeds measured in gigabits.
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