Fast Internet for 216 other Bucher households

Created: 06/21/2022, 18:00

By: Markus Ostermaier

A bundle of fiber optic cable sheaths hangs in front of a residential building.

© Uwe Anspach/dpa/symbol image

216 other households in the municipality of Buch can look forward to new broadband coverage in the future.

The City Council unanimously approved the preliminary grant application.

The selection process should be carried out directly afterwards.

Buch am Buchrain – As a first step in the federal gigabit funding process, the municipality carried out a market survey.

The only response came from Telekom, as Mayor Ferdinand Geisberger and an employee of the consulting firm IK-T from Regensburg reported.

Telekom promised a network upgrade to over 100 megabits per second (Mbit/s) within twelve months for some areas in the town centre.

Large parts of Buchs had already been supplied with fiber optics in the previous funding process.

For the other municipal areas, a VDSL supply with less than 100 Mbit/s was reported in the market investigation process.

They are therefore considered eligible.

There may be exceptions for small, medium-sized or agricultural businesses, among others.

As reported in the municipal council, they can also be considered eligible even if they already have a coverage of over 100 Mbit/s.

There are 15 such cases.

You still have to submit the relevant proof to the municipality.

A total of 216 addresses are considered eligible.

The expansion costs for the relevant households in the main town and the districts of Herweg, Pitz, Hausmehring and Oberndorf depend heavily on the network operators offering the service.

According to the municipality's calculation in the draft resolution, the costs could be between 2.2 and 6.6 million euros.

The average costs per house connection are estimated to be between 10,000 and 30,000 euros.

After deducting the federal funds and the Bavarian co-financing, Buch's own contribution is expected to be between 260,000 and 290,000 euros.

The committee decided unanimously to apply for funding for the 216 addresses and then to tender for gigabit-capable development.

The award of the contract and the construction time, which depends on the provider, is estimated at two to four years.

179 addresses in the main town are not eligible for funding in the current program, as this is where Telekom is upgrading the network with more than 100 Mbit/s.

Subsidized expansion is likely to be possible for them from 2023.

Information on this will not be available until the end of 2022.