Euro Commish OKs €3bn German broadband aid scheme Germany has got the green light from the European Commission to push ahead with a publicly funded scheme to roll out next generation access (NGA) broadband networks. The €3bn project is to provide high speed internet access throughout the country, including in rural areas. “This aid scheme will make faster broadband services …
Yes, they are trying to get everybody broadband access. But in this case it is limited to 7 areas in one state (Saxony-Anhalt).
Surely citizens can report that their area needs some improvement but I read severeal german newspapers and tech magazines daily and this is the place I read about it...
Yay for The Register but how about some public information that a normal citizen will get (and not just the average geek).
FZI I live in a very very isolated area in Bavaria, telephone and powerlines are the only thing we get, because they are required to give it to us by law. Last year our region got VDSL (vectoring) and even a boost in LTE, so for the first time in 18 years we get internet without having to think about how much we use it (up to 75000 if the LTE would be working properly, right now about 25000). In 1997 we were one of the first german regions to get DSL, sadly my home wasn't one of them (about 2km cabeling was too much), so we got LTE as soon as we were able to. In the end we payed over 90€ a month to have 15GB LTE and 30GB via satelite (11pm to 7am unlimited).
That ment manual updates only, no video-streaming, no game-downloads, limited online gaming (LTE has awesome pings, but satelite is horrible).
So I am all for expanding broadband access and starting with so called "white zones" where access is very limited or not available at all. I know a lot of people that live in smaller villages and don't even get "DSL lite" or LTE. And don't even ask me about cell phone coverage.
So surely in most cities germay is looking good when it comes to broadband but most of the technology is outdated and rural regions who could also use the boost to attract new businesses and thus create new jobs are rarely mentioned.
That all the incumbent players within the whole of Europe stopped playing with making copper last a bit longer and moved over to fiber, even in rural areas. Have a look at B4RN.org.uk to see what can be done if a small group of community-minded people work together - 1 Gbps up/down in rural areas!
"That all the incumbent players within the whole of Europe stopped playing with making copper last a bit longer and moved over to fiber, even in rural areas. Have a look at B4RN.org.uk to see what can be done if a small group of community-minded people work together - 1 Gbps up/down in rural areas!"
If telcos adopted this en masse they'd go bust. B4RN worked because many of the things telcos would have to pay for were given for free - labour and wayleaves.
If abandoning copper and installing fibre everywhere made sense someone would have done it, without any subsidy.
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