09 Mai Urgent Industry Appeal to the Digital Ministerial Conference: Fibre Optic and Mobile Network Expansion Need Investment-Friendly and Competitive Policies
Berlin, 28 March 2025. Faster approval processes, reduced bureaucracy, and investment-friendly policies are essential for rapidly developing future-proof digital infrastructure in Germany. In an urgent appeal, the telecommunications industry associations ANGA, Bitkom, BREKO, and VATM have called on today’s Digital Ministerial Conference to adopt consistent measures that will speed up progress across regions, as well as a long-term, targeted funding strategy.
Most importantly, a comprehensive „acceleration law“ must be passed swiftly, fully recognising the public interest in fibre optics and mobile networks. The industry is counting on the states to support this in future legislation.
To replace lengthy approval processes, a digital notification system should be introduced to ease the burden on both local authorities and businesses. There must also be a consistent effort to reduce bureaucracy at all government levels by cutting unnecessary reporting and documentation requirements. Several key measures to speed up expansion, already outlined in the federal-state pact, must be implemented without delay.
The newly approved special fund provides federal states with access to up to 100 billion euros for investment out of a total of 500 billion euros. Additionally, the new federal government plans to allocate 3.5 billion euros annually for gigabit funding. However, more state funding in the short term will not resolve the structural issues slowing fibre expansion. From the perspective of expanding companies, it is crucial that gigabit funding remains long-term, reliable, and focused, with a yearly budget of one billion euros in federal funds. Without this, costs will rise, and expansion will be further delayed, especially as nearly 70% of already approved funding has yet to be used.
