Cell phone network
Anti-dead zone funding: First cell phone mast in operation
A smartphone that is only connected to WiFi has no cellular network. photo
© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
Germany’s cell phone networks are getting better. But if you’re unlucky, you still live in a dead zone today. A billion-dollar funding program is intended to change that. This is slowly progressing.
More than three years after the start of billion-dollar government funding intended to help eliminate dead spots in rural areas, consumers can benefit from it for the first time. A mobile phone mast funded with federal funds went online in Lind in the Ahrweiler district (Rhineland-Palatinate), according to the state mobile communications infrastructure company (MIG). Naumburg an der Saale announced.
It is the first time that a mobile phone site funded by federal funds has gone into operation. This took place in mid-September, after which Telefónica Deutschland (O2) still needed time for technical optimizations.
People who pass by there or live there now have a network – initially only from O2, but in the future Telekom and Vodafone also want to install their antennas there. He assumes that this will happen soon, says MIG boss Ernst Ferdinand Wilmsmann. There are 50 households in the area, which was long a dead zone.
The federal government’s billion dollar pot
The MIG was founded at the beginning of 2021, and after the green light from Brussels in May 2021, the company was able to start its work. It has a 1.1 billion euro federal funding pot at its disposal to close dead spots where the network operators Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefónica (O2) and now also the newcomer 1&1 do not want to do it themselves.
The fight against dead spots is a lengthy process: First, it is clarified whether the area can only be connected to the cell phone network with government funding. If this is the case, MIG plans the mast locations, rents land, explores possible obstacles in the approval process and concludes preliminary contracts.
She then launches a funding call for companies to apply for. After the funding decision has been awarded, construction will begin and the technology will be installed – up to 17 months are planned for this.
Wissing sees a “milestone for mobile communications funding”
The current Federal Transport Minister and former Rhineland-Palatinate State Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) awarded a funding decision in 2023 for the 40 meter high mast in Rhineland-Palatinate, which is now the first state-funded location to offer a mobile phone network. The liberal assesses the commissioning as positive. “The federal government’s mobile communications funding is effective and the successes can be experienced by people in the region.”
The MIG, which currently has around 70 employees, is scheduled to exist until the end of 2025. The federal government’s mobile communications funding will expire at the end of 2024 – by then the calls for funding must have resulted in funding notices. In the coming year – MIG’s last year – the company will continue to support projects and support municipalities in mobile communications expansion.