Especially in times of Corona, the Internet is irreplaceable for many workers and students. In the Schmerold district of Gmund, residents are now experiencing this painfully. Just like the Hafner family.
Gmund - “My children, who should learn it, cannot handle the media. I can do that now. ”Steffi Hafner has not entirely lost her sense of humor. Even if she has often been closer to despair than to laughter in the past few weeks.
Since schools had to stop attending classroom instruction in March and most of the learning at home takes place digitally, they have been particularly hard hit by a well-known problem: an extremely poor internet connection in Schmerold. The Hafners and their neighbors, like the municipality of Gmund, know about him and have long since done everything in their power to remedy this. Telekom would now be decisive as a network operator, but it leaves it hanging.
Mother commutes between home and office for home schooling
Since her boys, sixth and seventh graders at secondary schools have had lessons at home, Steffi Hafner's day has started driving to the office. In the family business in Dürnbach, she calls up the children's day plans on the computer, makes printouts, draws videos, films and tutorials on USB sticks and takes them home, where school is announced every day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. In the evening she packs the notebooks with the completed tasks, drives back to the office, scans them in and sends them back to the teachers.
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She then often delves into a topic herself so that she can help with explanations if there is a problem. Quickly researching something during the day that would be helpful for the exercises is difficult. The Hafners only have Internet reception at home, but as soon as others use the Internet, it becomes tricky.
Around 60 people live in the small hamlet on the Mangfall, including two high school graduates, a teacher and several children, who are currently particularly dependent on the digital offer. "I've had the crisis for weeks," says Hafner, who was actually very optimistic about learning at home. Now she has the full-bodied promises of state politics in terms of a nationwide broadband expansion in the country in her ears and is all the more disappointed that she is one of the forgotten.
Community is waiting for clear statements from Telekom
Everything would be done. They have full support from the community. In the course of construction work, this would lay empty pipes, so-called speed pipes, into which fiber optic cables can be shot. A civil engineer commissioned by Hafners is ready for the earthwork up to the houses. To date, however, there is no clear indication of where appropriate cables would be laid.
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"It can take months, if not years," confirms Alfons Besel, who had been dealing with the problem long before his time as Mayor of Gmund. Already as manager of the community, he had tried to expand the broadband network and had encountered difficulties with Schmerold-Holzschleife. Because telephone connections there have the Miesbach area code, it was initially not clear whether the access should be from the district town or from Gmund, he says. This has been resolved for three quarters of a year. Unfortunately, this did not speed things up.
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"At first we received contradictory information, now there is none at all," explains Besel: "It is desperate." Finally, Telekom explained to him that, due to Corona, there was a shortage of workers from abroad. That may sound plausible, but a large corporation must be able to handle it, said the mayor, who has been trying for months to get a clear statement of where cables can be placed and distribution boxes can be attached: "We urgently need technical data." An alternative to the market leader Telekom does not exist because remaining areas such as Schmerold-Holzschleife are not attractive to other providers.
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