The city of Salzgitter has received funding from the federal government and the state of Lower Saxony for the expansion of a fiber optic network in the Gebhardshagen Südwest area. As part of the gap-filling program, an expansion project will be implemented, whereby 20 addresses that are underserved with broadband will receive a fast Internet connection (1 Gbit/s symmetrical).
The federal subsidy amounts to 50% of the project costs. The state of Lower Saxony is also providing co-financing of 25% of the costs, meaning that the city of Salzgitter will bear 25% of the costs itself. The total costs for the expansion are currently estimated at around €200,000.
What is the gap closure program?
The new gap-filling program of the Gigabit Directive 2.0 can be used to fund areas that were left out of the broadband expansion by telecommunications companies due to excessive expansion costs. These so-called "gaps" usually only have low broadband coverage in contrast to their surrounding area. In order to enable the provision of high-speed Internet despite this, municipalities and cities can now have small areas retrofitted with the gap closure funding measure so that no undersupply remains.
