New mobile phone masts and a campaign against the fear of mobile radio beams: the Federal Cabinet met in Meseberg Castle in Brandenburg and decided on measures to improve mobile coverage in Germany.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) sees the German government facing major challenges in digitization: "There is a lot of work ahead of us," Merkel said at the end of the exam. "Digitalization is going to change our society dramatically, it already does it today." The expansion of the mobile infrastructure should be accelerated, as it was about the expansion of digital management.
The opposition criticized the government's meeting as a "PR show." The Digitalklausur had made "over-clear" that the government is lacking in leadership and coordination in digital politics, said the Vice-Chairman of the FDP, Frank Sitta. The Greens complained that the mobile strategy for closing dead spots came ten years too late. Left-boss Bernd Riexinger added that the market would "just not" solve this problem.
HAYOUNG JEON / EPA-EFE / REX
Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Chancellor Angela Merkel in front of Meseberg Castle in Brandenburg
The federal government had decided on Sunday evening, the mobile strategy. With 1.1 billion euros, it wants to provide around 5000 locations with mobile communications, which are "economically unavailable" by the companies. In the next two years, there will be everywhere in Germany reception at LTE level, said Chancellery Minister Helge Braun in the ZDF "morning magazine".
Merkel: Data is "the new oil"
Merkel said in the afternoon that there is currently no shortage of funds for investment. The problem is that planning periods are too long. It takes sometimes a year and a half to build a radio mast. In other countries, this is much faster. On reservations in the population because of additional exposure to radiation during the construction of new radio masts, Merkel said that she could say to all citizens who are concerned that the government places health protection at the very top. She referred to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, which provided comprehensive information.
In the discussion about the participation of the Chinese supplier Huawei in the 5G network construction, Merkel again referred to the planned high security requirements. However, the government rejects the exclusion of certain providers.
Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said that the government wanted to ensure that there was better quality in mobile communications. To this end, decisions taken in recent years have been corrected. Scholz called tougher conditions for the mobile operators for a nationwide mobile coverage in the course of the 5G network.
The government also decided on a data strategy. Merkel said data today is the "new oil". Data is a raw material from which new business products should emerge. This is about anonymized data. For personalized data, citizens should have full transparency and a right to access what happens with it.