There are clouds hanging over Nidda on the day that is supposed to bring the city closer to fast Internet. At that time, in January last year, the weather was of only marginal interest. Representatives of the city, the regional association and the German Giganetwork are celebrating the symbolic groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a fiber-optic network. "Internet at the speed of light, including telephony, optimal digital television and interference-free video calls: the development of the city with fiber optic technology makes it possible," is the company's promise.
Thorsten Winter
Correspondent of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for Central Hesse and the Wetterau.
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Previously, service providers and the city advertised the project in the 18 districts. Ultimately, the quota has been exceeded: more than 40 percent of households and companies are participating. Giganetz plans to invest an unspecified double-digit million amount. There is no mention of public subsidies in the declaration. "The expansion is expected to be completed by the end of 2023," the service provider announces. He will lay the fiber optic connection into the customer's own four walls. Households or businesses could use the maximum bandwidth in the future. A blessing in the eastern Wetterau, because there the network is not the fastest in many places. The Vitronet Group is to set up the "privately financed" network.
140 kilometers of optical fibers to pull
At this point in time, it is not foreseeable for the city that symbolically darker clouds will appear in the coming months. Mayor Thorsten Eberhard (CDU), who has been in office since April 2022, continues to expect full expansion – financed by Giganetz. This is a major project: 140 kilometers of fiber optics have to be installed and 9500 house transfer points have to be created at 6000 properties. This is aggravated by the fragmentation of the municipality. In smaller towns such as Münzenberg, such a web is easier to spin.
In Ober- and Unter-Widdersheim as well as the core city, workers are nevertheless getting to work – as agreed. Shortly before New Year's Eve, Giganetz announced that it had installed the first of six planned fiber-optic main distributors in Unterschmitten. The plant forms the hub of the development areas for the supply of fiber optics. That's where all the connections came together. Further junctions are planned in Fauerbach, Borsdorf and Ober-Widdersheim, as well as two in the city centre.
But it must have been a problem long ago in those weeks, as Eberhard says in retrospect. There had been the signal since autumn that a Vitronet subsidiary was withdrawing. Giganetz initially played it down, but after some back and forth it confirmed its departure from Vitronet. Uncertainty is spreading in Nidda: What will become of the expansion? According to Eberhard, he contacted Giganetz several times and was told that the company had a new construction company on the hook. "The ink is almost dry under the contract," is the tenor before the meeting of the city councillors in April. "But nothing happened, we were not introduced to the successor to Vitronet," says the head of the town hall.
In the meantime, he knows that there will be no privately financed full expansion. Upper and Lower Widdersheim and the core city yes – but not all 18 districts. After talks with Giganetz, the compromise was to add three to four more districts to the list. For example, the company will expand 40 percent of Nidda on its own responsibility. Subsidies are to be provided for the majority.
Inflation and expensive asphalt
After that, however, the city is basically not in the sense, because it has to raise its own contribution. Giganetz talks about 300,000 to 400,000 euros in a paper. Eberhard also thinks half a million euros is possible. The service provider says: "Unfortunately, things don't always go as initially thought." He points to inflation, rising energy costs and a price increase of 50 percent in the procurement of asphalt. This, among other things, has changed the framework conditions for fiber-optic expansion. Nevertheless, Giganetz is committed to the overall expansion.
However, the company notes: "Even the initial planning for a possible full expansion had provided for a proportion of address points that can only be expanded through later funding." It remains to be seen at what point the company and the city misunderstood each other at this point in the early days of the project.
No full expansion with fibre optics before the end of 2025
One thing is clear: Before the federal government grants a subsidy, a market exploration procedure must be carried out and a tender for the remaining work on the fibre-optic network must be issued. If Giganetz is then awarded the contract, things can continue as planned. If a competitor successfully intervenes, it could result in a new variant, as the company points out. In this case, the other company would probably only do the publicly funded work. In other words, it might not come to the overall expansion. But that is out of the question for Eberhard: "I would like to have the expansion in all 18 districts."
So the city will try to get federal money after all. A full expansion by the end of 2023 is a thing of the past. Giganetz now considers autumn 2025 to be "realistic".