How fast does the internet have to be at least to ensure “basic service”?

Is ten megabits per second sufficient for the download, as the federal government believes, or does the performance have to be set significantly higher?

The dispute over the minimum requirements, which has been smoldering for months, is now heating up.

Helmut Buender

Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.

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At the end of this week it is the Federal Council's turn, and there the signs are pointing to a blockade.

Because from the point of view of many countries, the specifications planned so far are simply "underambitious and not up to date", according to a draft resolution.

At least 30 megabits are required for downloading, and a minimum speed of 3.4 megabits should apply for uploading data.

Measured against the federal government's goal of providing all households with gigabit fiber optic access by 2030, the wishes of the federal states seem rather modest.

But the Federal Network Agency, which prepared the government draft, warns against confusing the various goals.

It is not about the high-speed network, but about enabling the use of the essential basic Internet services everywhere in Germany.

“We continue to believe our draft is balanced.

It's like minimum wage.

Most people are already getting significantly more bandwidth today, but in future nobody should be allowed to fall under it," said President Klaus Müller of the FAZ. In addition, the specifications are only a start.

The value is checked regularly and is likely to rise steadily in the coming years.

Müller hopes for a rethink in the state chamber.

“If the draft fails in the Bundesrat, the Federal Network Agency cannot enforce the right to universal service.

The poorly supplied citizens would lose out," he warned.

Because with the planned regulation there is a legal right for the first time: Where the lines are not fast enough and no company is willing to invest voluntarily, the Federal Network Agency could oblige the providers to expand.

The federal states hope that this will provide an additional incentive for investments in remote areas: In order to avoid later requirements, the providers would be motivated "to develop in an economically sensible manner" instead of concentrating on the most lucrative areas, according to the committee's recommendations.

Companies: Connecting individual households is far too expensive

The telecommunications industry sees it exactly the other way round.

"Should the federal states prevail, it would be the end of the gigabit targets of the federal government.

Companies would be forced to change their existing expansion plans in order to connect individual households across Germany," said Sven Knapp, head of the capital city office of the Federal Association of Broadband Communication (Breko).

Because of the already extremely tight construction capacities, this is not possible.

A joint position paper with the digital associations Bitkom and Eco as well as the telecommunications associations VATM, Buglas and ANGA goes in the same direction.

Instead of new impetus for fiber optic expansion, they expect that old copper networks would have to be expanded in order to open up underserved households.

Because connecting individual households primarily to fiber optics is usually far too expensive.

Internet via satellite or mobile communications is only a very limited alternative.

In practice, satellite communication fails due to the fast response times (latencies) that are also required. Although the bandwidths can be achieved with mobile communications, they cannot be permanently guaranteed, contrary to what the Federal Council demands.

Around four percent of households have had to be satisfied with a maximum of 10 megabits per second.

With the tripling of the minimum speed required by the Federal Council, the proportion of households without a service increases to nine percent, which would affect around four million connections.

"The right to be supplied with telecommunications services would become the norm for millions of people," says the industry paper.

The telecom companies are calling on the federal states to finally use the existing public funding opportunities instead.

For six years now, they have been able to support broadband expansion for households with bandwidths of less than 30 megabits per second.

Apparently the countries are now trying to cover up their omissions and pass the costs on to the companies, said Knapp vom Breko.

From his point of view, the entire funding policy is going in the wrong direction.

The reason for this is the Digital Ministry’s considerations of abolishing the previous threshold at the turn of the year: Instead of initially concentrating funding on areas with particularly poor connections, the municipalities could then also claim grants for fiber optic expansion in regions with a 100-megabit supply.