Research Project: Digital infrastructure as a regional development factor

Project briefing

• Status Completed
• Project duration December 2014 – October 2018
• Programme MORO

The availability of broadband infrastructure for the German regions has been a significant factor influencing economic and regional development for some time. Location decisions are increasingly based on this criterion. Well-supplied areas have an advantage over regions that have not yet made sufficient progress in broadband expansion. The pilot project "Digital infrastructure as a regional development factor" (MOROdigital) focuses on broadband expansion in terms of regional development in order to identify and pass on positive impulses for action in structural change.

Project duration: December 2014 – October 2018

Background

High-performance broadband connections are necessary both for commercial purposes and for future-oriented projects in public life (e.g., intelligent energy and transport networks), the health sector and public administration. Many applications for private use are also dependent on higher transmission rates. For this reason, the nationwide availability of broadband networks must also become available in structurally weak rural regions to strengthen them in the long term when competing for inhabitants and new jobs. Modern broadband access opens up new opportunities for securing and revitalising locations, which can mitigate adverse developments.

Bandwidths of up to 50 Mbps are sufficient for current applications. However, there are still gaps in broadband coverage in the use of innovative services and offerings, which show a noticeable lack of coverage, especially in the rural regions of Germany. To meet the growing needs of the information and communication society and also to strengthen Germany's economic power, a future-proof and nationwide broadband infrastructure expansion is also necessary for these regions.

Due to the high expansion costs, which are primarily incurred in civil engineering, and due to the low return prospects in rural regions from an economic point of view, the nationwide expansion has not yet been realised.

This market failure is leading to increasing demand in the affected regions for the public sector to find solutions and create the necessary infrastructure. There are various approaches to how municipalities and districts can carry out the expansion on their own. However, this requires supporting measures in the form of advisory services or financing mechanisms, since the municipalities often have neither the budget nor the corresponding know-how. Uniform support offers and inter-municipal cooperation are now proven means of achieving the expansion targets.

The practical implementation of exemplary and transferable development projects was mentored regarding content and science within the framework of the "Demonstration Projects of Spatial Planning" (MORO) action programme. The selected projects should be both promising and representative of specific development problems in rural areas. In this way, the transferability of solutions was guaranteed, and the results and experience could be made available to other regions.

Objective

MOROdigital aimed to help actors from structurally weak rural regions with the inadequate broadband infrastructure to take the initiative in tackling or improving local/regional broadband supply. Existing experience in promoting broadband expansion in underserved areas had to be bundled, processed and made available to the affected actors at an early stage for this purpose.

Innovative solutions are to be supported explicitly to secure the planning, financing, and implementation of the expansion and use in the underserved regions. Within the framework of the two planned transfer workshops, the participating pilot projects were able to exchange experience and receive expert information and advice from experts.

Contractor of the project was the TÜV Rheinland Consulting GmbH.