The Federal Government’s Broadband Support

Since 26.04.2021, addresses with connection speeds up to 100 Mbit/s can be subsidised within the framework of the Federal Grant Programme Gigabit (Grey-Slecken Programme), provided that no self-economic expansion is legally indicated. A particular focus within the Grey Corner Program is on the uncomplicated care of schools, hospitals, small and medium-sized enterprises, commercial areas, local authorities and transport hubs.These are eligible for funding if they have not yet been connected to gigabits or if they have a download rate of less than 500 Mbit/s. As of 2023, no catch threshold will be provided, so that connections that are outside black spots that are not yet gigabit-capable (< 500 Mbps in download) will in principle become eligible. Compared to the predecessor of the Federal Broadband Support Programme (White-Flake Programme), the funding was thus significantly expanded. Since November 2015, the German government has been supporting the expansion of high-performance broadband networks throughout Germany within the framework of the White Patch funding programme in regions where privately supported expansion has not yet been achieved and a supply of less than 30 Mbps has been available. The aim of the federal broadband funding programmes is to support and stimulate the telecommunications market, so that a modern and sustainable high-speed network is created for all households, schools, hospitals and companies in Germany. The purpose of the infrastructure funding is either to cover a profitability gap or to support it by means of an operator model. If the calculated expenditure exceeds the expected revenue, one speaks of a profitability gap. This deficit in the network operator can be covered by the federal funding programme. In the case of the operator model, on the other hand, the construction of the passive infrastructure, such as tubes or fibre-optic lines, is carried out by the local authority, which is then leased to private network operators for operation. The support here refers to capital expenditure minus the present value of the lease income, which are proportionally related to the federal share of the funding. The Federal Government generally participates in the expansion costs with funding rates between 50 and 70 % and with up to 100 % in the expenditure on planning and consulting services. The promotion of high-performance broadband networks can only take place in underserved areas. In the Grey-Slecken Support Programme, an area is considered to be underserved due to EU state aid requirements, if less than 100 Mbps are available for the individual user in download and no private sector expansion takes place. This is referred to as the threshold. Information on the approved funding projects can be found in the funding map of the Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV). You can find out about the status of the procedures for selecting network operators via the online portals of the responsible borrowed project promoters. For project area A (Bundesländer: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia) is PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft in cooperation with VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH and TÜV Rheinland Consulting GmbH the responsible project manager (https://gigabit-projekttraeger.de/). For project area B (Bundesländer: Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein) is the responsible contact person (https://projekttraeger-breitband.de). General information on the Federal broadband support programme can be found on the website www.bmdv.bund.de/breitbandfoerderung.