NAUMBURG (dpa-AFX) - A company responsible for closing wireless holes expects cell phone networks in remote areas to improve significantly in 2024 and 2025 thanks to federal funding. If the mobile network operators cooperate, it will be possible to launch "a clear three-digit number" of funding calls next year after extensive preparatory work, the head of the federally owned mobile communications infrastructure company (MIG), Ernst-Ferdinand Wilmsmann, told dpa in Naumburg an der Saale. This year, there were only eleven.

After the funding calls, it takes a few months to receive the funding notice and then a maximum of 14 months to put the radio mast into operation. "It's a thick board we have to drill, but by 2024/25 the effect will be noticeably felt by the citizen."

MIG was established in early 2021, and after the green light from Brussels in May 2021, the company was able to start operations. It has a EUR 1.1 billion federal funding pot at its disposal to close wireless gaps where network operators Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefónica Deutschland (O2) and now also newcomer 1&1 do not want to do it themselves.

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 sites, rents land, explores possible obstacles in approval procedures and concludes preliminary contracts. It then launches a funding call.

When asked why all this takes so long, Wilmsmann said that the search for suitable sites, the preparation of approval procedures and the agreements with the telecommunications industry all take time. They are working to make it happen faster, he said. "However, you need a lot of staying power to expand the infrastructure." Compared to the expansion of the company's own business, the duration of the procedure is good.

So far, MIG has awarded two funding decisions, one in a hiking area in Bavaria and one at the Möhne reservoir in NRW. These two pylons will now be built and, in all likelihood, put into operation at the end of 2023. In addition, MIG has so far completed 972 market investigation procedures and established in three quarters of cases that the telecommunications companies are not planning any roll-out for their own account and that these areas are therefore eligible for subsidies.

If this is the case, MIG employees set out to talk to property owners in order to win them over for a lease agreement for a cell phone tower. That often proves difficult, Wilmsmann said. Only a moderate rent can be offered, he said. Since the subsidy expires after seven years and the government payments cease, the site should then be financially self-supporting, he said, and that has to be taken into account from the start. In addition, there is sometimes a lot of skepticism about mobile communications on site. Recently, a property owner had signaled his willingness to lease, but then withdrew because neighbors put pressure on him.

In addition to the state-subsidized network improvements, the network operators are working to close wireless gaps at their own expense. They are obligated to do so as part of expansion requirements resulting from the 2019 spectrum auction./wdw/DP/zb