Wessobrunn wants broadband expansion for everyone

Created: 12/27/2022, 2:13 p.m

By: Roland Halmel

If possible, there should be a fiber optic connection in the entire municipality of Wessobrunn.

© DPA

If necessary, the municipality of Wessobrunn wants to raise its own money in order to further advance the broadband expansion in the monastery town.

The goal is to make fiber optics accessible to all citizens.

That was the topic at the most recent council meeting.

Wessobrunn – The broadband expansion in the Wessobrunn districts has now been completed.

However, there was no expansion in the center of Wessobrunn, as there is already a very fast data connection there.

An exception is the upper Lüßweg in the southeast of the municipality, which is still lagging behind in terms of speed.

"As promised by Mr. Scherl from Telekom at the citizens' meeting, the bandwidth there is to be improved to at least 30 Mbit," reported Mayor Georg Guggemos at the municipal council meeting from a conversation with Telekom that he had had together with Wessobrunn's digital officer Max Obholzer.

It was also about the further expansion plans in terms of broadband.

"All of Germany is to be equipped with fiber optics and Telekom wants to do the center of Wessobrunn itself," explained Obholzer.

This expansion is also very important for the monastic community.

"Our goal is 100 percent," Obholzer made clear.

All community citizens should have the opportunity to get a fiber optic connection, according to Obholzer.

The municipality would also be willing to take over a proportion of the costs for this.

"A cost assessment is to be drawn up of what a full-scale expansion would cost and what funds the municipality must provide in order to no longer make use of a subsidy program," added Guggemos.

But there is also a snag in Telekom's plans.

"You won't do the expansion before 2028," said Obholzer.

The alternatives would therefore be for the municipality to carry out the measure itself or for another provider to step in.

The company UGG (“Our green fiber optics”) has already made representations to the community in this regard.

"If we do it ourselves, we're maybe a year faster than Telekom, and if a third party does it, they'll have a monopoly afterwards," Obholzer said, but the two alternatives weren't necessarily attractive.

"If Telekom expands, you can choose any provider yourself," according to Obholzer, the former state-owned company must also make its line available to others.

As far as the time factor is concerned, he also sees room for improvement.

"My suggestion would be to take Telekom and negotiate, maybe then we can speed things up," concluded Obholzer in the progress report at the municipal council meeting, which the municipal council took note of without much discussion.