FAQ

The term “broadband” denotes high-speed internet access with a high rate of data transmission. “Broadband” is a collective term for the four different forms of access using fiber optic cable, mobile networks, DSL (copper lines), and satellite.

There is no uniform consensus on this. The German Government and European Union (EU) aim to provide all households with a data transmission rate of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbit/s) – a target to which the City of Heidelberg is also committed. At this speed it takes about one second to download a song from the internet and three or four minutes for a two-hour film.

Broadband provision has undergone significant expansion in Heidelberg in recent years. Around 88% of all households in the city now have a broadband internet connection with a transmission rate of at least 50 Mbit/s.

These figures are taken from the Federal Broadband Atlas, the central information medium for current broadband provision in Germany. The Atlas enables telecommunications providers to supply voluntary information on broadband availability.

No. High-speed internet connections are essentially the responsibility of the private sector. Only in exceptional circumstances can the City of Heidelberg promote and coordinate broadband expansion in a specific area. One such exception would be “market failure”. This is the case when the private sector has no plans to expand provision in a given area to at least 30 Mbit/s within the next three years. The City of Heidelberg has already identified “white spots” within the city where market failure has been demonstrated and is currently pushing ahead with fiber optic cable provision.

A feasibility study carried out by TÜV Rheinland has identified the following “white spots” in Heidelberg:

Parts of Schlierbach, Ziegelhausen and Neuenheim; outlying residential areas (Königstuhl, Kohlhof, Kurpfalzhöfe, Neurott and Grenzhof);parts of the industrial estates in Fabrikstraße, Handschuhsheim-Nord, Hardtstraße, Im Bosseldorn, Pfaffengrund, Rohrbach-Süd, Weststadt, Wieblingen-Süd, Wieblingen-West.

Stepwise broadband provision to the remaining “white spots” – starting with Schlierbach and Ziegelhausen – is planned from spring 2019. These municipal measures will receive funding of EUR 5.3 million from the federal and state governments. The City of Heidelberg plans to build its own fiber optic network and tender out operation of the infrastructure. The contact partner for the end user will always be the private service provider.

In advance of any municipal building projects, the City of Heidelberg will advise private telecommunications companies at an early stage of the possibility of laying fiber optic cables during the course of the planned construction work. In addition, empty ducts for fiber optic cables will be laid as a precautionary measure as part of any inner-city civil engineering works.

If you live in one of the underserved “white spots”, you can expect to be provided with high-speed internet from 2019. If you live in another part of Heidelberg, please contact your telecommunications provider. Unfortunately, the city administration can exert no operational influence in this respect, but in discussion with telecommunications providers it regularly highlights the need to increase bandwidth to the maximum, based on existing infrastructure.

Fiber optic cables offer high bandwidth over great distances. Copper connections can only achieve comparable bandwidth over very short distances, if at all. That is why a fiber optic rollout is the preferred option for the years ahead.

The latest information on broadband provision can be found at www.heidelberg.de. For more information on the Digital City, see our Facebook page www.facebook.com/DigitalesHeidelberg. Inventory data concerning the fiber optic network in the Stadtwerke Heidelberg networks, as well as empty ducts that can readily be used for fiber optic cables without requiring further civil engineering work, can be accessed on the utility company’s online network information page. Further information can be found at https://www.swhd.de/netzauskunft.