“We want to create a modern, future-proof and sustainable digital infrastructure.

To do this, we need fiber optics and modern mobile communications across the board by 2030.” That’s what Hesse’s Digital Minister Kristina Sinemus (CDU) said on Thursday in the Rhein-Main Congress Center in Wiesbaden when she opened the twelfth Hesse gigabit summit.

According to the minister, fiber optic expansion in Hesse is progressing well.

She made it clear that the digital transformation can only succeed if the appropriate infrastructure is in place, because "the digital infrastructure is the basis for everything, for education, for the economy, for health".

To create this basis, there is the Hessian gigabit strategy.

According to Sinemus, one of their goals is to connect all hospitals, commercial areas and schools with gigabit capability by the end of the year.

By 2025, the residential buildings should be connected to the fast Internet, and by 2030 every household in Hesse should be able to connect to the Internet via high-performance fiber optic cables.

"This is our route, and we have implemented this route in part - also promoted by Corona," said the minister to the approximately 300 listeners in the Congress Center.

Sinemus backed up your statements to company representatives, mayors and district administrators with numbers: 117 of 128 hospitals currently have an Internet connection with a transmission rate of one gigabit per second.

That is 91 percent of the clinics included in the state plan.

Every fourth Hessian household should have a fiber optic connection by 2023

Sinemus had announced the day before that out of 2005 Hessian schools, 1616 now have a fast gigabit connection.

That is 81 percent of all schools.

"We've really made good progress with this," she explained.

According to the minister, the goal of all schools and hospitals in Hesse having access to high-speed Internet by the end of the year is in sight.

However, it is also important for Sinemus to know that the digital infrastructure is set up securely and resiliently in order to be better protected against cyber attacks.

"We will set up a Hessian Security and Resilience Council to protect our digital infrastructure," she announced.

In May, the minister presented the fiber optic pact that had been concluded with eleven telecommunications companies and two associations.

During the summit, she reiterated one of the Pact's goals of covering around 18 percent of households with a total of 530,000 fiber optic connections within the next twelve months.

The expansion is progressing well, she said.

Around 25 percent of all Hessian households should therefore have a fiber optic connection by mid-2023.

Sinemus cited the Frankfurt/RheinMain gigabit region as a further target.

This is the largest fiber optic project in Europe, which is intended to connect around 1.6 million households and 640 commercial areas to the fiber optic network.

However, fast internet is particularly important in rural areas.

According to the minister, the state government is therefore providing support as part of the so-called gray spots program where private-sector expansion is not taking place, and is making up to 80 million euros available for fiber optic expansion in the Main-Kinzig district alone, for example.

In order to further accelerate the expansion, Hesse is working together with Rhineland-Palatinate to simplify the approval process.

“They are leaders in Hesse”

The Hessian gigabit strategy also includes mobile communications, for which a pact was also concluded.

"We want to advance 5G, that will be the next stage of expansion," said Sinemus, referring to the current 1,800 5G locations in Hesse.

"We are strengthening rural areas by setting up a mobile phone funding program of 50 million euros that will make mobile phone expansion possible where the telecommunications companies say it is not necessarily worthwhile for them," she explained

The federal government passed its gigabit strategy last week.

Gertrud Husch, head of department in the FDP-led Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, presented the strategy and said to Sinemus: "You are the leader in Hesse."

The Hessian FDP sees it differently.

"The fiber optics pact in Hesse is a step in the right direction, viewed benevolently, but it was only taken when other countries had long since made their way," complained Oliver Stirböck, digital policy spokesman for the FDP.

In his estimation, fiber optic expansion is progressing slowly.