The expansion of the fiber optic connections of the schools in Bavaria is making progress. 44 percent of all public schools have a direct fiber optic connection, 41 percent are under construction, said Finance and Home Affairs Minister Albert Füracker on Thursday in Nuremberg. Another 14 percent are in the planning phase or have expressed interest. Currently, 73 percent of public schools can use gigabit bandwidths. However, so far only a quarter of them have booked this, emphasized Füracker. Demand among customers is also lagging behind the expansion rate. Between mid-2020 and mid-2021, 500,000 households were supplied with Gigabit for the first time. But a nationwide study showed that only a third of households with fiber optic connections actually used them.
The state and municipalities are investing more than two billion euros in broadband expansion. 64 percent of Bavarian households are connected with gigabits, around 98 percent with fast Internet (at least 30 Mbit per second). This puts Bavaria in second place nationwide behind Saarland when it comes to the expansion of high-speed internet. In rural communities, Bavaria is even the front runner nationwide with a supply of almost 94 percent.