On the way to the fiber optic future
Digital applications require high bandwidths and stable connections. To ensure that video streaming at home works just as well as the Internet of Things (IoT) in the industrial sector, fiber optics are being laid throughout the district.
Broadband is becoming a decisive location factor. Companies will only relocate if they can be sure that they have fast and stable internet connections on site. Real estate loses value if Netflix or online gaming is jerky. The outdated copper wire-based networks are unable to cope with such applications - not to mention future scenarios such as smart cities, smart farming, autonomous driving or working from home and homeschooling. The coronavirus pandemic in particular has impressively demonstrated how important stable and fast broadband connections are. The future therefore belongs to fiber optics.
The district is moving full steam ahead on the road to a future-proof fiber optic data highway
"Fiber optics is the transmission medium of the future for digital progress and provides large broadband reserves as a technology," sums up Rahel Rediet, Managing Director of the special-purpose association for broadband expansion. The special-purpose association includes 25 of the 26 municipalities in the district. It is a shareholder of Gigabit Region Stuttgart GmbH (GRS), whose Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board is District Administrator Roland Bernhard. The aim of GRS is the comprehensive expansion of fiber optics in the districts of Böblingen, Esslingen, Rems-Murr, Göppingen and Ludwigsburg. As an interim stage, all companies in municipal business parks and 50 percent of the population are to receive a fiber optic connection by the end of 2025. By 2030, 90 percent of private households are to be covered. The fiber optic cable will be laid either to the buildings (fiber to the building, FTTB) or even to the homes (fiber to the home, FTTH).
Source: Broadband Atlas of the Federal Government, as of December 2022
"High-performance fibre-optic lines to every home and every business will become an even more decisive location factor for the attractiveness of a region in the future," says District Administrator Bernhard, underlining the importance of fibre-optic expansion. In the district, it began in Weil der Stadt. Here, Deutsche Telekom, a partner of GRS, laid around 125 kilometers of fiber optic lines and set up 62 new network distributors to reach 1,750 households that had previously opted for a fiber optic connection.
In the meantime, many other municipalities in the district are in the process of or about to roll out fiber optics. In addition to Telekom, Deutsche Glasfaser is also pushing ahead with FTTB/H expansion in the district. And with success: While the coverage of households in the Böblingen district with FTTB/H connections was not even at two percent at the end of 2012, the rate has risen to over 19 percent within just four years.
The district is therefore moving full steam ahead on the path to a future-proof fiber optic data highway. In doing so, it is laying the foundations for digital services of general interest as well as for a modern and sustainable industry. Ultimately, mobile communications will also benefit from fiber optics in the ground, because for the new 5G generation of mobile communications and all subsequent generations, the radio masts must be connected with fiber optics in order to be able to transport the large amounts of data.
Fiber optics is the transmission medium of the future for digital progress and provides large broadband reserves as a technology.
Rahel Rediet, operational managing director of the broadband expansion association
