Gigabit strategy

Bitkom Chief Executive Dr. Bernhard Rohleder explains: "With the digital ministry's giga-bit strategy, Germany's networks can be raised to a whole new level by 2025: much denser, faster and more resource-efficient. Bitkom has been pointing out for years that network expansion can be massively accelerated with simple measures in the areas of construction and administrative law, among others. The new federal government is now tackling these tasks in a targeted manner. It is important that the new strategy is now also implemented and filled with life. This requires the states and municipalities. Bitkom calls on the states and municipalities to fully embrace the federal government's strategy and to provide committed legal and operational support, from the legal framework to the deployment of new laying processes.

By 2025, companies have the potential to invest ten to twelve billion euros per year in the expansion of the fixed network and mobile communications. This means that up to EUR 50 billion of privately financed funds could flow into network expansion during this legislative period. It is the task of policymakers to create the ideal framework conditions to exploit this potential and thus accelerate expansion. Bitkom has presented a comprehensive catalog of proposals for concrete measures. These include the rapid removal of barriers to expansion, the acceleration and digitization of application and approval processes, and the inclusion of alternative installation technologies. Support measures must be designed in such a way that they focus on areas where private-sector expansion is not possible without crowding out private investment.

With funding of one billion euros a year, private and public investments can work well together. It is also important to us that the implementation of the universal service obligation be designed in a way that is open to technology in order to achieve fast and economical provision of gigabit Internet across the board, for example with satellite Internet."