Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (Bundesministerium fur Verkehr und Digitale Infrastruktur, BMVI) has approved a further 53 grants to fund the rollout of high speed broadband networks in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The second round of funding, which totals EUR457 million (USD510 million), forms part of the government’s EUR4 billion programme to promote infrastructure efforts in rural and underserved areas of the country. Federal Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the EUR457 million will help to connect around 120,000 households and 10,000 businesses in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to super-fast broadband networks.
TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that the government approved the BMVI’s plans to allocate EUR2.7 billion for the deployment of high speed broadband in so-called ‘white spots’ in October 2015, and went on to allocate an additional EUR1.3 billion in July to raise the total fund to EUR4 billion. The money is being allocated to local authorities, which can then subsidise telecoms operators in two ways, either by financially supporting the economically unattractive rollout of broadband networks by a telecoms operator, or by installing broadband networks themselves and then renting out their infrastructure to suppliers.
