Schwerin (dpa/mv) - Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) is convinced that Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has made noticeable progress in digitization over the past four years. "The number of households with gigabit-capable internet access rose from 14.9 to 53.3 percent between 2018 and 2021. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania thus has the highest growth rate of all federal states and the best gigabit supply in the eastern German federal states," said Schwesig on the occasion a visit to the Digital Innovation Center in Greifswald, with which she continued her MV tour on Wednesday.
With the support of the federal government, the state wants to advance fiber optic expansion in rural areas in particular and eliminate white spots without internet and gray spots with only weak connections.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has so far received 1.34 billion euros from the federal government for upgrading the data network. The state is contributing a further 727 million euros. However, the pace of expansion - also due to the corona pandemic and a lack of construction capacity - fell short of the wishes of many users. According to the government, route construction has been completed in 32 of the 129 project areas approved for the subsidized expansion, and companies have been commissioned with the implementation in the others.
As can be seen from the current federal broadband atlas, around 81.5 percent of all households in the north-east had fast internet connections of at least 50 megabits per second in mid-2021. In Saxony-Anhalt, the penultimate federal state, it was 90.2 percent, the national average being 95.1 percent.
In her statement, Schwesig pointed out that the digital agenda adopted by the state government in 2018 also includes the establishment of six digital innovation centers in the state. "All centers have started their work. They support business founders, but also advise companies that are already established on the market in developing digital business areas," said the head of government.
