Berlin The R2 leaflet reads like a warning for anyone who wants to lay fiber optic cables quickly and cheaply. There is talk of “considerable damage to the road infrastructure”, of “depreciation of the road”, which has an effect “on the balance sheet of the municipality”. There are also “consequential costs” for the municipalities, such as “additional costs due to the reduced service life of the road” or an “increased road maintenance effort”. And if that weren’t enough: All of this should be “taken over by the telecommunications company”.
This is what it says in the draft of the new regulations of the Research Society for Roads and Traffic (FGSV). It’s all about milling, plowing and “trenching”. Telecommunications companies actually want to use these techniques to lay their fiber optic cables, for example slitting road surfaces like “trenching” and burying the cable just under the road instead of digging meters deep.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) is also counting on it. After all, by 2030 all households should have access to the fiber optic network. That’s what the federal government’s gigabit strategy says. He also wants to use alternatives to “make the expansion much faster, cheaper and more effective”. So far, fiber optic cables have only been laid along just over 20 percent of households.
For months, Wissing has been promoting this to local authorities and, in addition to the FGSV, has also asked the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) to complete their standardization processes by the end of the year. They have been running since 2018.
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The FGSV is ready. She intends to publish her leaflet soon. “We are assuming October,” said a spokesman when asked. Documents of the private association have the effect of a law, as all practitioners adhere to them. Accordingly, the telecommunications industry (TK) is in turmoil.
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The “Trenching” leaflet is available from the Handelsblatt. Alternative laying methods are only permitted under strict specifications. “However, any company planning to lay fiber optic lines is still able to agree with a municipality on laying in the trenching process,” said the spokesman. “The corresponding guidelines then serve as binding regulations.”
Federal Transport Minister Wissing wants to “make the expansion much faster, cheaper and more effective” with alternatives.
(Photo: dpa)
The network operators, on the other hand, see the advantages: with trenching, for example, a large part of the civil engineering costs would be eliminated. Instead of 100 meters a week, a construction crew would manage 400 meters, according to German fiber optics. In view of the utilized capacity in construction and the lofty goals of politics, weighty arguments that resonated: For several years, the Telecommunications Act has allowed these options in construction – “according to the rules of technology”.
However, these rules are not set by the telecom companies, but by the experts from the FGSV and DIN. Representatives from the broadband industry participate but do not have a majority. The research company is dominated by municipal representatives of the building authorities and engineers from the construction industry and from science. They develop the rules as volunteers. The working group on the laying methods is headed by an employee of the Hanover Civil Engineering Office.
The telecom industry is opposed to the proposed norm
No wonder that the telecommunications companies and their associations have been mobilizing against the standardization plans for weeks. Above all, the broadband association Anga and the German fiber optics exerted pressure, as it was said in government circles. But other associations such as the Federal Association of Broadband Communication (Breko) are also loudly calling for “user-friendly standardization” or, like the Association of Providers of Telecommunications and Value-Added Services (VATM), warn against “skeptics from the established ranks of the construction industry”.
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In addition to the construction industry, the municipal associations in particular reject the new laying methods. In view of the experiences of the past few years, municipalities complained about botched construction. Frost, heavy trucks – a badly closed seam quickly breaks open again, cities and districts have to repair and pay. On the other hand, the TC companies are only with difficulty able to refute reservations with positive examples, as it was said in negotiation circles.
Minister of Transport Wissing should not like this. He has already promised the municipalities a compensation fund for construction defects to allay their concerns.
The rules for fiber optic expansion are not set by the telecommunications companies, but by the experts from the FGSV and DIN.
(Photo: dpa)
But not only the FGSV pleads for conventional civil engineering methods, also the DIN. This emerges from a draft for the new standard, which is available to the Handelsblatt. Accordingly, the majority of experts insist on extensive planning before the alternatives are used. Sewerage, power cables or railways must not be “interfered with”, and “a parallel building over of existing lines should be avoided”. Another criterion is to “priority use conduit systems” in order to avoid encroaching on the streets. The telecommunications companies should prove all of this before they are allowed to build – and of course be liable for damage later.
Some of the representatives on the DIN committee are the same as on the FGSV. The group is headed by a representative of the construction group Leonhard Weiß. In 2016, the company was still impressed by “micro-trenching”. In 2018, however, it sounded different: During the initial negotiations in the Federal Ministry of Transport, the representative explained that Trenching was “not a patent solution”. There are a wide variety of techniques and thus “confusion in the market”. And: “Quality requirements are minimized due to cost pressure.”
DIN will present its standard at the end of the year
The DIN working group will meet for the last time on October 13th. At the end of the year it intends to present the draft “E DIN 18220”. This is then open to public discussion for at least eight weeks. As it was said, the group expects “several hundred” statements, especially from the fiber optic companies, who want to exert influence again. The final standard will probably be announced “late spring 2023” at the earliest.
In addition to the construction industry, the municipal associations in particular reject the new laying methods.
(Photo: dpa)
Until then, the telecommunications companies would like to prevent the leaflet of the FGSV. It harbors “the danger of a negative signal effect”, as it was said in negotiating circles. But the FGSV is independent. The leaflet was recently corrected again. However, it will soon be printed by the company’s own publishing house and then distributed. From then on it will be the standard in every office.
Minister of Transport Wissing then only has one other method: the above-ground laying, for example along telephone and energy masts. “With the help of pilot projects by the federal government, the federal states and the industry, we want to show potential and break down reservations,” he said. According to the VATM industry association, there are more than three million masts at Telekom alone, with which remote farms in the country could be connected to the gigabit network.
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