By 2018, Germany will be providing all its citizens with a 50 Mbps broadband internet connection. That speed is ten times faster than the present average broadband speed all over the world.
Based on the June publication of the State of the Internet connectivity report for Q1 2015 by Akamai, a content delivery network (CDN), the average global speed is 5Mbps, making this plan of Germany to roll out the minimum 50Mbps connections across the entire country truly ambitious.
If things will push through as planned, the European country will have a minimum downstream connection that is more than the highest global average speed for downstreaming. As of now, South Korea holds the fastest at 23.6Mbps, while the average connection speed in the United States is 11.9Mbps.
Currently, around 70 percent of Germany is connected already to networks that provide 50Mbps or even faster. It is then seen that connecting the remaining 30 percent will be a relatively 'cheap' task. The German government will be allocating €2.7 billion for this project, but then it will still source out matched funding from local providers foreseen to benefit from extending the reach to high-speed broadband networks.
A spokesperson of the government said, "The German Federation will contribute up to 50 percent of the costs. A combination with development programs provided by German states is possible and can offer a further 40 percent of financing. The community would then have to provide the remaining 10 percent. "
To be able to achieve this, German Minister for Transport and Digital Infrastructure Alexander Dobrindt launched the first federal German development programme for the extension of broadband. Through it, highly efficient broadband networks will be provided to regions and the communities, on other hand, need to initiate the extension of their network and coordinate the projects locally.
There are two models for the project from which communities may choose from: 1) Wirtschaftlichkeitslückenmodell" which will allow the communities to close the gap in the market left by telecommunication companies as they see the area as economically unattractive and 2) "Betreibermodell" that will allow communities to put up their own passive infrastructure, like fibre optic cables, which they can lease to communication companies. Dobrindt disclosed that communities can receive up to €10 million per project.
