1. procedure
Hof broadband expansion
The Free State of Bavaria is using a funding program to gradually expand high-performance broadband networks in commercial and accumulation areas.
The city of Hof has identified a spatially defined area that could have inadequate broadband coverage as defined by the Broadband Directive. This area comprises the Kulmbacher Strasse North and South commercial areas.
The city of Hof intends to increase the available bandwidth and sees the expansion of high-performance broadband coverage as an important coverage goal for the defined area. A competitive economy in Hof requires a future-proof Internet supply.
The proceedings have now been concluded.
Actual supply
The assessment of demand/identification of the actual supply in the provisionally defined development area has now been completed. The following map shows the situation. The federal broadband atlas and a survey of selected companies in the area using the standard questionnaire provided were used as sources.
The results showed that the download and upload bandwidths shown in the broadband atlas are far from being achieved in reality in some parts of the area. For example, download bandwidths well below 10 Mbit/sec. are more the norm.
Market survey
The Free State of Bavaria is using a funding program to gradually expand high-performance broadband networks in commercial and accumulation areas.
The city of Hof has identified a spatially defined area that could have inadequate broadband coverage as defined by the Broadband Directive. This area comprises the Kulmbacher Strasse North and South commercial areas.
The city of Hof intends to increase the available bandwidth and sees the expansion of high-performance broadband coverage as an important coverage goal for the defined area. A competitive economy in Hof requires a future-proof Internet supply.
As part of the market investigation, network operators are now being asked to comment on any incompleteness or errors in the presentation of actual coverage in the provisionally defined development area and to provide a cartographic representation of the upload and download bandwidths already offered to all subscribers. The map of actual coverage is updated on the basis of the feedback from the network operators in the market survey.
The results of the market survey will be published here and on the portal www.schnelles-internet.bayern.de. In this context, any expansion plans of the network operators and the bandwidths realized as a result in the self-supported expansion will also be explained.
The purpose of the market survey is to determine whether investors are planning to expand the network on their own account in the next three years and at what bandwidths. An area for which roll-out for own account is then announced must be mapped and a technical concept must be used to demonstrate the upload and download bandwidths that can be offered to all possible end customers in the area following roll-out.
In this context, it is pointed out that every network operator participating in a possible subsequent selection procedure who has its own passive infrastructure in the preliminary development area must confirm when submitting its bid that it has made the data on this infrastructure available to the Federal Network Agency for inclusion in its infrastructure atlas as of the cut-off date of July 1 of each year and is in principle prepared to make its passive infrastructure available to other network operators participating in the selection procedure. If infrastructure has been created in the provisional development area after the cut-off date of July 1, the City of Hof must be notified of this. The city of Hof will then draw attention to this fact in the announcement of the invitation to tender.
Upon corresponding request from possible participants in the selection procedure, the City of Hof shall make available the information received on the infrastructure built after the cut-off date of July 1. This ensures that other participants in the selection process can include the infrastructure in question in their bid.
With this market investigation step, the city of Hof is now checking, in accordance with No. 4.1.1 (5) BbR, whether private investors are planning to roll out an NGA network in the development area on their own account. Only if this is not the case can the city of Hof carry out a selection procedure to determine a provider then to be promoted.
The city of Hof is therefore calling on operators of electronic communications networks to state whether they believe they are in a position to offer needs-based broadband services in the development area at standard market terms and conditions over the next three years without any financial involvement by third parties.
If network expansion is planned, please send a binding and detailed project plan and timetable, which makes the planned investments credible and comprehensible, to the City of Hof by October 30, 2014 at the latest. In the project and time schedule, milestones in particular are to be defined at intervals of no longer than 6 months in such a way that compliance with them can be checked upon request by the City of Hof. If the private investor fails to meet these self-imposed milestones, the City of Hof may proceed with the selection of a network operator in accordance with No. 4.3 BbR.
If expansion measures are planned by a private provider in the development area, but the City of Hof is not notified of these within the deadline set for submitting comments as part of the market investigation, they will not be taken into account.
The results of the market survey will be published on this homepage.
The market investigation procedure for the city of Hof ends on September 30, 2014.
