There is still a lot of room for improvement, but broadband expansion in the district has come a long way in the past two years.
94 percent of households are now supplied with at least 50 Mbit per second.
Individual fates with lower bandwidths are inevitable, affected parents and students face problems during the lockdown.
The situation is worst in Wessobrunn, only in Schwabbruck is everyone happy.
On Facebook, some readers have complained about their suffering
The internet offer is not yet satisfactory everywhere in the district
This is fatal for home office and schooling during the lockdown
Pure bliss can only be found in a church
County - A fast and stable internet connection is almost vital for the county citizens in times of lockdown.
While parents stay connected with colleagues via video conferences, their children follow the online lessons on the computers.
This takes a lot of megabits (Mbits), but these do not come from the lines everywhere.
A Facebook survey by Schongauer Nachrichten, Weilheimer Tagblatt and Penzberger Merkur revealed some gaps.
They match the current statistics from the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) in the so-called broadband atlas.
Our internet is so slow that a snail is even overtaking it
A woman from Schwabsoien
"Our Internet is so slow, it is even being overtaken by a snail," complains a woman from Schwabsoien, for example.
It is likely to be one of the 17 households in the Schönach community in which, according to the broadband atlas, less than 16 megabits per second (Mbit / s) are struggling to get out of the line.
In Schongau, too, complaints are inevitable: "My daughter lives on Joseph-Haydn-Strasse, she only has 6 Mbit," reports an angry mother.
A man from Burggen even says that he lives “in the Stone Age”, while a few kilometers further in Schwabbruck there is bliss: “We are blessed with fiber optics right into the house,” says a happy citizen.
Schwabbruck is the figurehead in the Pfaffenwinkel
The Schwabbruck community of 1,000 people is the flagship in Pfaffenwinkel when there is talk of broadband expansion.
Mayor Norbert Essich already received the grant notification from then Finance Minister Markus Söder in 2016, and the expansion was completed in 2018.
408 of the 409 households can now whiz through the Internet at up to 1000 Mbit / s.
At that time, the fiber optic connection was free for all residents into the house.
Penzberg has the most fiber optic connections
When it comes to fiber optic connections, of course, larger municipalities have the edge: Penzberg has by far the most to offer.
As early as 2020, 2,421 of 8,645 households in the city were surfing using the least disruptive of all technologies.
More fiber optic connections have recently been added in the outdoor areas.
But also in Penzberg there are apparently isolated gaps in supply.
For example, a reader from the Steigenberg district reports a meager 5 to 6 Mbit / s: “That's just about working from home,” says the woman.
"In video conferences with more than five participants, however, all cameras should be off, otherwise the sound often doesn't work."
All in all, according to the broadband atlas, Penzberg is one of the best-served cities in the district.
Almost 98 percent of households are on the move with bandwidths of 50 Mbit / s and more, for more than 90 percent 1000 Mbit / s are available if customers book the corresponding tariff with their providers.
Very few complaints come from Weilheim
In our Facebook survey, however, the fewest complaints from dissatisfied citizens came from the district town of Weilheim.
And there is a reason for that: an impressive 99 percent of the 12,217 households in Weilheim now surf the Internet with at least 50 Mbit / s.
86 percent are supplied with up to 1000 Mbit / s.
The citizens owe this to Stadtwerke Weilheim Energie GmbH.
It started in 2017 to close gaps in broadband coverage with a subsidized fiber optic network.
According to managing director Peter Müller, more than 100 kilometers of fiber optic routes were laid and 600 households were connected.
"Most of the bottlenecks in Weilheim have now been eliminated and all households that originally had a data rate of less than 30 Mbit / s have been opened up," explains the GmbH boss.
The citizens of Peißenberg are likely to be similarly satisfied: 95 percent of the households in the market town now have bandwidths of 50 Mbit / s, 89 percent can even book 1000 Mbit / s.
Almost everyone in Schongau can only dream of 1000 Mbit / s
One can only dream of that in Schongau at the moment.
In Lechstadt, thanks to the extensive cable network from which television is obtained, 97 percent of households are on the move with more than 50 Mbit / s.
In contrast, there are very few high-speed connections.
Just under two percent of households in Schongau can enjoy 1000 Mbit / s.
There were just 103 fiber optic connections in mid-2020.
Home office and homeschooling at the same time is not possible
A Schongauerin on Facebook
In the Facebook survey there were also complaints from residents in Lechstadt about inadequate internet connections.
“Home office and homeschooling at the same time is not possible,” was one of them.
The most frequent criticism was that the cable network lines did not deliver what they promise.
The city is well aware of the problem: broadband godfather Martin Blockhaus therefore speaks quite openly of “a stale aftertaste” when it comes to the internet offerings from the cable network.
A large-scale broadband expansion is currently not in sight in Lechstadt.
Another 50 households that were previously “underserved” will soon be given fiber optic connections, that's it.
For now, the rest of them have to be content with what they have.
There is still plenty of room for improvement in Peiting, too
In Peiting, too, there is still plenty of room for improvement in broadband expansion.
Only a good two percent of households make it into the gigabit range (1000 Mbit / s), 91 percent have 50 Mbit / s and more.
Complaints about bad connections are therefore also inevitable in the market town: If you are moving out of town towards Steingaden, the supply is "catastrophic", complains a mother in our Facebook survey.
“Right now, when both teenagers are homeschooling, it's unbearable, nothing works,” she complains.
She couldn't understand that now.
We can understand the frustration
Mayor Peter Ostenrieder
The community is taking countermeasures, and broadband expansion is underway.
"We can understand the frustration," says Mayor Peter Ostenrieder, referring to the ongoing expansion of Telekom.
It won't be completed until summer 2022.
"But since we can observe that new streets are constantly being switched on or suddenly receiving a higher data rate, we are confident that this will continue to be positive," says the mayor.
According to Ostenrieder, the biggest problem at the moment is the lack of civil engineering companies.
Meanwhile, Peiting is doing what it can: Among other things, with an “empty pipe master plan” and an investigation for the next funding program (gigar guideline), which the Free State wants to implement from 2025.
Smaller commoners make good ground
Many smaller municipalities in the district have made good ground in the past two years.
This applies, for example, to the administrative association (VG) Rottenbuch-Böbing.
The expansion of the federal funding program has already been completed and both communities are very happy, reports VG branch manager Peter Vogt.
"Otherwise the outdoor area would have big problems in the age of home office and homeschooling," he says.
Especially in the monastery village, many citizens are now surfing at top speed.
511 of the 781 households have fiber optic connections and can therefore book up to 1000 Mbit / s.
In Böbing 185 out of 757 enjoy this pleasure.
Nevertheless, the VG sees further need for action, particularly in the local and near areas of the two communities.
Most of the time, the supply is already at at least 30 Mbit / s, "but still via copper," says Vogt.
That is why the decision was made here to continue to expand using the “Bavarian Gigabit Funding Procedure”.
In the meantime, one should be particularly happy in Eglfing, which two years ago was the bottom of the list in the comparison of district-wide broadband coverage.
In the meantime, 82 percent of households in the community surf the Internet at 50 Mbit / s and more.
In 2018 only 17.3 percent made it there.
Wessobrunn, at the bottom of the list, struggles with Telekom
Wessobrunn is at the bottom now.
Only 37 percent of the 973 households achieve 50 Mbit / s.
And mayor Georg Guggemos is of course aware of the dilemma: “We are not satisfied at all,” he says.
The current status quo in many areas of the community brings considerable disadvantages for the citizens, regrets the town hall chief with a view to home office and schooling in lockdown.
"The fiber optic expansion contract signed with Deutsche Telekom in 2019 must be implemented as quickly as possible," Guggemos demands.
"We are committed to completion before the promised date in autumn 2022."
And with that, the district as a whole would polish up its still moderate section.
Taken together, according to the broadband atlas, there are only 46 percent of households in the district that can penetrate into the gigabit range.
The overall Oberland has significantly more to offer with an average of 56 percent.
Series for broadband expansion:
Only one municipality in the Weilheim-Schongau district can offer all its citizens perfect internet access with fiber optics and up to 1000 Mbit / s, if they want it: Schwabbruck.
What the other cities and municipalities in the district are doing to catch up will be explained in more detail in a series on broadband expansion in the coming weeks.
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