29 Okt. Five Minutes to Midnight – Federal Ministry’s Initiative to Accelerate Fiber Roll-Out Must Ensure Investment Certainty and Fair Competition
Berlin, 28 October 2025. At today’s Stakeholder Dialogue in Berlin, German Digital Minister Dr. Karsten Wildberger launched discussions on a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to accelerate Germany’s digital infrastructure roll-out. The meeting brought together policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders to define concrete targets for expanding the fiber network on a federal level.
VATM Vice President Wolfram Rinner emphasized during the discussion: “As an industry association, we welcome this high-level stakeholder dialogue and the Ministry’s initiative to set clear goals and measurable indicators through the MoU. We’ve lost pivotal years in fiber deployment due to excessive bureaucracy, weak enforcement, and a flawed state aid system. All stakeholders must now pull in the same direction if Germany wants to close the gap.”
Rinner stressed that the long-standing emphasis on accelerating broadband deployment must now be complemented by a firm commitment to fair competition. The upcoming copper switch-off will serve as a key test for both the new Digital Ministry and BNetzA: “The goal must be to ensure that the transition to fiber offers consumers and businesses a clear advantage — faster speeds, better products, and genuine competition among providers,” Rinner said. “It is encouraging that the Ministry has recognized the importance of competition and of managing copper migration based on non-discrimination. This recognition must now be translated into concrete action.”
VATM Board Member Markus Hendrich, representing the association’s business market segment, added:
“The specific needs of the business customer segment continue to be overlooked, even though companies and industries depend most urgently on robust digital connectivity. If competition or service quality further decline during the copper migration, our competitiveness as a business location will take another hit”.
Hendrich emphasized that the Digital Ministry and BNetzA must give greater prominence to these issues — including by establishing dedicated performance indicators within the MoU.
Rinner and Hendrich summarized the key requirements for improving the framework conditions to accelerate network deployment as follows:
• Planning certainty for multi-billion-euro private investments through clear prioritization of private-sector roll-out and a revision of federal and state fiber subsidy programs.
• Protection and strengthening of competition in Germany through more effective market regulation by BNetzA — reducing market dominance and preventing abuse of market power through timely, consistent enforcement.
• Reduction of bureaucratic barriers, faster administrative procedures, and better coordination between federal and state authorities through the consistent implementation of the Federal-State Acceleration Pact.
VATM will actively contribute to the forthcoming process of developing the Memorandum of Understanding.
