Federal Digital Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) wants to ensure that the expansion of fast Internet connections progresses much faster.
By the end of 2025, fiber optics should be available for at least half of households and companies in Germany.
Five years later, everyone in Germany should have "fiber optics to their homes" and the latest mobile communications standard.
Corinna Budras
Business correspondent in Berlin.
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Mark Fehr
Editor in Business.
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These are the cornerstones of a "gigabit strategy" that Wissing discussed with industry representatives on Thursday.
The telecommunications industry should also make its contribution: it pledged to invest 50 billion euros in the expansion over the next three years.
In regions where economic expansion is not worthwhile, the state will provide subsidies.
The expansion of the fiber optic network is a key element in giving citizens and companies access to digital services.
Fiber optic lines offer a particularly fast and stable connection to the Internet, but so far they are not very common, especially in rural areas.
According to the Federal Network Agency, at the beginning of the year the nationwide proportion of fiber optics was only around one fifth: 8.9 million households are considered to be supplied.
Masts must be erected quickly
However, the central prerequisite for the expansion of the fiber optic and mobile network are additional masts, which must be erected as quickly and easily as possible.
So far, this has always been lacking because approval processes are too complicated and lengthy.
Digital Minister Wissing is therefore primarily responsible for the federal states that are responsible for this.
By the end of the year, they are to change their state building regulations in such a way that approval procedures are accelerated or possibly completely dispensed with when it comes to the erection of mobile masts or the replacement of existing systems.
The "Tesla model" should also be used more frequently in the future: It should be possible to start erecting cell phone masts even before the building permit is granted.
When laying fiber optic cables, Wissing would like to rely on new above-ground laying techniques and comments meaningfully: He would like to “increase acceptance among municipalities and companies in the construction industry and reduce uncertainties”.
The federal and state governments should cooperate more closely
This goal is to be achieved, for example, with pilot projects.
In order to strengthen cooperation between the federal and state governments, a new federal-state state secretary committee will be created, which will meet four times a year.
The digital minister also took on the favorite lawsuit of German train customers: “It must be possible at all times to work without interruption on train journeys, to call your family or to stream a video,” he demanded.
He also listed the necessary improvements for this: For example, the heat and sun coating on the windows in the ICE trains of Deutsche Bahn would have to be renewed.
These also kept out cell phone radiation.
He referred to the new ICE 3neo, which had been further developed in this regard.
He also demanded that the duration of the approval process for Deutsche Bahn when upgrading tunnels for mobile communications should be halved.
The economy is happy about the advance
The key points met with a positive response in the industry.
Bernhard Rohleder, CEO of the industry association Bitkom, praised: "We have never had such a substantiated paper on the table so early in a legislative period."
However, Jürgen Grützner, Managing Director of the Association of Providers of Telecommunications and Value-Added Services, warned: These goals can be achieved – but only if the federal government does its homework, removes hurdles and takes acceleration measures.” That it is not the money, but mostly the bureaucracy fails, agrees Thorsten Dirks, CEO of the telecommunications company DeutscheGlass fiber.
He reports a real "gold rush mood" on the German market.
The providers competed to see who would be the first to excavate in an area.
Some started digging before they had enough households from a community as customers.
According to Dirks, investors are showering the industry with money, 43 billion euros are available.
International financial investors, insurance companies and pension funds see fiber optic infrastructure as an attractive asset class.
Approval takes two months for the railways
But the sluggish bureaucracy is slowing down the pace of expansion, Dirks criticized.
Approval from Deutsche Bahn must be obtained every time a line is to be laid under a railway line.
The railways need an average of eight weeks for such a permit.
Approvals from authorities also take a long time because they often depend on fax machines.
The safety-oriented German construction law often acts as a brake.
In principle, fiber optic lines must be laid 60 centimeters (cm) deep, which requires excavation and compliance with civil engineering regulations.
In some cases, however, the simpler "trenching" is possible, for which the lines only have to be laid 45 cm deep.
So these 15 cm make an important difference: Because they can be milled without having to do a lot of digging.
In other countries, on the other hand, lines can also be laid on masts, whereby you can do a few kilometers a day instead of just a few 100 meters a week.
Despite all the obstacles, the German fiber optics wants to lay half a million connections this year.