Digital Minister Scheuer stumbles over his own infrastructure: reception was “horrible”
Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer has now complained about digital infrastructure in East Germany. However, he is responsible for this himself: instead of taking care of the expansion, he preferred to set up an authority worth billions for it.
“It was horrible”, said Scheuer of the DPA and meant the network coverage between Berlin, Franfurt (Oder) and Cottbus. Although he was able to dial into the own WLAN, the claim must be to have fiber optics and mobile communications everywhere. “It was a nice ride, but not a ride in the 21st century,” he said. The CSU politician has been responsible for the digital infrastructure since 2018. He took over the office from fellow party member Alexander Dobrinth. Dobrinth had announced that it would achieve a nationwide speed of at least 50 megabits per second by 2018. According to Broadband Atlas the goal has not yet been achieved.
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Billionaire agency with two employees
Scheuer has set up a special agency to expand the network, which has been facing sharp headwinds since it was founded. There are many reasons for this. The Federal Audit Office complains that the project is hindering the work of the audit authority. The Ministry of Transport has placed the new GmbH under the umbrella of toll operator Toll Collect and has provided it with almost a quarter of a billion euros. In addition, 1.1 billion euros are to flow into society in order to plug 4,000 radio gaps with 4G / LTE masts. The mobile infrastructure company (MIG), as the entity is officially called, will also receive a further 4 billion according to the “future package” from last year to help with the 5G expansion. In mid-June that came out of the approved 97.5 positions only two have been filled. The company, which was conceived in 2020, officially started work on January 1, 2021.
Infrastructure company under attack
The So far, the Federal Audit Office has not given the project a good report out. In addition to reprimands for the “insufficient” information policy, there was a lack of clearly defined goals and delimited tasks. There is a risk that the MIG tasks – as most recently with the 5G expansion – would be changed and expanded again and again. The political opponent also has the new office on the kieker. The MIG double the tasks of the Federal Network Agency without relieving them, say the Greens. MIG wants to create a radio punch card for around 377,900 euros per year. Specifically, 300,000 euros in material costs “for the operation and development of the geographic information portal mode” and 77,900 euros for half a post in the senior service are planned. The problem: The Federal Network Agency already has a card current cellular network coverage put online. When asked, the authority says: The Federal Network Agency could not provide any information about the need for another geographic information portal.
Time lost for real mobile network expansion
The budgetary spokesman for the Greens Sven-Christian Kindler said the editorial network Germany: “The federal government is wasting a lot of time with the construction of Scheuer’s new radio loop office, in which the mobile network expansion is not progressing.” You could have simply ordered a new department for the Federal Network Agency, Kindler continued. That would have done without a new board member, managing director and co. With the money saved, a few masts could have been erected last year – and Andreas Scheuer might already have been able to use 4G on the way to Cottbus.
