The broadband expansion projects to supply Bonn with fiber optic technology include the city's successful participation in two funding procedures, the so-called "area application" and another special call for funding in commercial areas, schools and hospitals. Both programs have different funding characteristics, but are aimed at the same goal of providing private households, companies and public institutions with future-proof data lines. Last but not least, this is also a basic infrastructural requirement in order to be able to operate "next generation access" in the form of 5G.
In 2020, fiber optic coverage will be at 7 percent. With the two subsidized expansion projects, 1254 addresses will be added in the minimum case, and ideally far more address points if all properties between the address points are connected at the same time.
In addition to the subsidized expansion, it is important to create incentives for the telecommunications companies involved in the market to expand on their own initiative. On the one hand, the global players naturally play a decisive role, but smaller local providers and local utilities are also predestined to carry out infrastructure development work. From the administration's point of view, such a competitive situation represents a very good starting point.
In summary, broadband supply not only means fiber optic supply, but fiber optic supply is the basis for other lighthouse projects such as Education in the Digital World (BIDW) and Digital City. Overall, this will ensure Bonn's future viability as a science, business and UN location on its way to becoming the "Smartest City in NRW" of the future.
Why fiber optics at all?
- With fiber optic cables, you can surf as fast as light.
Glass fiber is an optical waveguide, i.e. it is used for optical data transmission. A single fiber consists of a core encased in a glass sheath.
In this core, light signals are reflected at speeds of up to 200,000 km/s until the data reaches its destination. In theory, you could send information from the earth to the moon in 1.9 seconds.
- The advantage over electrical transmission is that data waves can run parallel to each other through the fiber and therefore a much larger amount of data can be transmitted.
- Transmission rates in the gigabit to terrabit range are possible.
- Other advantages include low-cost production, less space required compared to copper cables and insensitivity to electrical interference.
Initial situation
The City of Bonn is a modern UN city that is a great place to work and live. As a densely populated city, it benefits from a very well-developed copper and TV network. On this basis, the transmission signals (vectoring) and logging (DocSIS for the TV network) are being optimized so that bandwidths of 250 Mbit/s (99% of connections) up to 1000 Mbit/s (83% of connections) are possible at many address points. Due to the very good copper network, fiber optic coverage was still at seven percent in 2020.
Subsidized expansion
The "white spot program"
The federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia are providing funding for the development of so-called "white address points" with the aim of achieving nationwide coverage by 2030. If, for example, an address point has a data rate of less than 30 Mbit/s, then funding can be applied for for this address.
In this process, 169 eligible address points were identified, including around 50 primary and special schools. Telekom Deutschland GmbH submitted the best bid in a Europe-wide tender and was therefore awarded the contract. The groundbreaking ceremony took place at Michaelschule on September 16, 2021. The development of the schools was prioritized due to the pandemic situation, so that around 8 of 18 expansion sections will be completed in 2022. The aim is to connect all primary and special schools by the end of 2023.
The federal and state governments are supporting this expansion project with around 2.5 million euros.
The special call in the "White Stain Program"
In institutions and public facilities, but also in companies, especially schools, hospitals and companies in industrial estates, it is not sufficient to rely solely on the bandwidth available at the address point. For this reason, it is possible for the special call in the "white spot program" to take into account the number of users at the address point in addition to the availability specified by the telecommunications companies. This ensures that every school class, hospital bed, hospital ward or workplace has at least 30 Mbit/s available. In this special call, a total of 949 address points were identified in Bonn. Telekom Deutschland GmbH once again submitted the best bid in this call for tenders and was awarded the contract at the end of 2022. Telekom will present its detailed expansion plans in 2023.
The federal and state governments are supporting this expansion project with around EUR 9 million.
The gray stain program
This funding program was set up in April 2021 and combines the White Spots program with a new general take-up threshold of 100 Mbit/s and the option to deviate from this take-up threshold in individual cases, provided that institutional customers of "socio-economic" interest are to be connected. Socio-economic are private and public institutions that significantly shape and drive social and economic development. This definition expands the circle of subsidized connections, especially as it is no longer absolutely necessary for the connection to be located in a commercial area.
Here, 3551 private addresses and 1557 socio-economic facilities were identified as eligible for funding. The City of Bonn submitted the application to the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport in May 2022 and received provisional approval on May 30, 2022.
In order to concretize this application, a so-called market exploration procedure was carried out in which all telecommunications companies were asked about their availability and their expansion plans. The aim of such a survey is, on the one hand, to obtain a more precise picture of current availability and, on the other hand, to gain knowledge of any plans for expansion in the next three years, i.e. future availability. Such self-economic expansion plans are expressly welcomed, as they can save on subsidies and relieve the burden on the public purse.
The federal government is supporting this expansion project with around EUR 18 million. However, the actual amount of funding will only be determined once the market exploration procedure has been completed.
This is a very complex application and approval procedure. The seven procedural steps described below are necessary for the subsidized gigabit expansion:
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