A company responsible for closing dead spots expects that the cell phone network in remote areas will improve significantly in 2024 and 2025 thanks to federal funding. If the mobile network operators participate, after extensive preliminary work, “a clearly three-digit number” of calls for funding will be able to start in the coming year, said the head of the federal mobile infrastructure company (MIG), Ernst-Ferdinand Wilmsmann, of the dpa in Naumburg an der Saale. This year there were only eleven.
After the calls for funding, it takes a few months until the funding decision is made and then a maximum of 14 months until the radio mast is put into operation. “It’s a tough job that we have to drill, but in 2024/25 the effect will be felt by the public.”
MIG was founded at the beginning of 2021, after the green light from Brussels in May 2021, the company was able to start its work. A 1.1 billion euro federal subsidy pot is available to close dead spots where the network operators Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefónica (O2) and now also the newcomer 1
What is a market discovery process?
In so-called market investigation procedures, it is clarified whether the area can only be connected to the cell phone network with state subsidies. If this is the case, MIG plans the mast locations, rents land, explores possible obstacles in the approval process and concludes preliminary agreements. Then she starts a call for funding.
When asked why all of this was taking so long, Wilmsmann said that the search for suitable land, the preparation of approval procedures and the agreements with the telecommunications industry needed time. We are working to make it go faster. “However, you need a lot of staying power to expand the infrastructure.” In comparison to self-sufficient expansion, one is in a good position in terms of the duration of the procedure.
So far, the MIG has awarded two grants, one in a hiking area in Bavaria and one near the Möhnesee dam in North Rhine-Westphalia. These two masts are now being built and are expected to be commissioned by the end of 2023. In addition, the MIG has so far completed 972 market investigation procedures and found in three quarters of the cases that the telecommunications companies are not planning any commercial expansion and that these areas are therefore eligible for funding.
Network operators also want to close dead spots
If that’s the case, MIG employees set off and seek talks with property owners in order to win them over to lease a cell phone mast. This is often difficult, said Wilmsmann. You can only offer a moderate rent. Since the subsidy will expire after seven years and the state payments will cease, the location should then be financially self-supporting, which must be taken into account from the start. In addition, the mobile skepticism on site is sometimes great. A property owner recently signaled his willingness to rent, but then withdrew because of pressure from neighbors.
Separately from state-sponsored network improvements, network operators are working to close dead spots at their own expense. They are obliged to do this as part of the expansion requirements resulting from the 2019 frequency auction.
