Germany set to miss 2030 fibre optic broadband target

The German government is set to miss its target of expanding fibre-optic infrastructure across the whole country by 2030, a new study conducted on behalf of broadband providers' association BREKO has shown, reported dpa.

The study, which was published on Tuesday, found that while the expansion is progressing across the country, the pace of the roll-out is slowing down.

According to the analysis, the fibre optic expansion rate in June was around 43% with just under 20 million connections. This was about 15% more connections than in the same period last year.

The rate refers to streets in which the cables for high-speed internet have already been laid, without direct connection to households.

BREKO President Norbert Westfal said the slowing pace is an early indicator that has had an impact on the political expansion targets. "Germany will achieve the goal of fibre optic connections for half of all households by 2025," he said. However, nationwide coverage by 2030 is not in sight, with an expansion rate of a maximum 86% realistic by then, he added.

While the pace of expansion is decreasing across the country, the number of directly connected households, companies and government agencies is growing faster.

In June 2024, around 10.5 million households were directly connected to the fibre optic network. This was around 18% more than in June 2023. In the same period of the previous year, the increase was 3.5%.