You can't do anything without the internet - but there aren't fast connections everywhere. Expansion is progressing in Thuringia, but not everywhere with as much speed as citizens and the economy would like.
Erfurt (dpa/th) - In Thuringia, a high three-digit million amount is being invested in the expansion of the fast Internet - but it is not progressing fast enough everywhere. "The biggest bottleneck is currently the available construction capacity. There are sufficient funds to finance the broadband expansion, but the problem in Germany at the moment is getting this onto the streets," said Economics Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee (SPD) of the German Press Agency in Erfurt.
Nevertheless, he is confident that most of the projects in the federal government's so-called "white spots program" can be completed by the end of 2025. The aim is to provide all regions with broadband Internet.
Tiefensee pointed out that overall coverage had improved. In 2015, only about half of the households in Thuringia had a transmission speed of at least 100 Mbit per second, but coverage is now around 85 percent. With transmission speeds from 30 Mbit and faster, the rate of connected households is now more than 90 percent.
According to the Ministry of Economics, a total of around 630 million euros has been flowing into the broadband expansion in Thuringia since 2015 and in the coming years. The money comes from the federal and state governments, the state share is around 250 million euros. Around 100,000 broadband connections would be relocated in Thuringian households and companies or upgraded for higher transmission rates.
On the subject of speed, Tiefensee referred to overly complicated funding procedures - it had been shown that the administrative burden for the municipalities was too great. "That's why we launched a municipally owned fiber optic company in Thuringia in 2021." It should accelerate the expansion of the Internet. According to the ministry, 270 of the approximately 630 municipalities in Thuringia have so far transferred the tasks involved in expanding the Internet to the fiber optic company, which can then become active for them. Among other things, it is about projects in the districts of Schmalkalden-Meiningen, Greiz, Saale-Orla and Saale-Holzland.
