Vienna. So far, the corona pandemic has been good business, at least for cell phone operators and internet operators. The Austrians made significantly more calls in the previous year and pulled a third more data from the network. The year of the crisis is reflected in the balance sheet of the part-state Telekom Austria with a profit increase of 3.9 percent. And the development is likely to continue: Home office will not disappear completely even after the pandemic; many are already looking for ways to do their work outdoors in the future. But one hurdle remains: the country will have to dream of a nationwide fast internet for a while.
“We would like to invest more in Austria,” says Telekom boss Thomas Arnoldner to the “press”. Broadband expansion could also take place faster – if the legal framework was right for it. This is currently not the case. And the government may be squandering the chance to change that.
The companies originally put a lot of hope in the new Telecommunications Act (TKG), which, according to EU requirements, should have come into force in 2020. The responsible Ministry of Agriculture missed this date. In the meantime, the draft law is available, with which the ministry wants to give network operators “more investment security in broadband expansion”. The review period is over – and the criticism is devastating.
At the “broadband siding”
There is no talk that Austria could start the long-awaited race to catch up in terms of digital policy with the law. For years the country has been in the back of the field in relevant rankings. The OECD only has a below average 30 broadband connections per 100 inhabitants. Only one in ten people has a fast gigabit connection. In Spain or Portugal it is 70 percent.
The present draft now brings some “significant deterioration” for the industry, says Arnoldner bitterly. The association of Internet service providers Ispa, to which Magenta and Drei also belong, makes no secret of its disappointment. Austria ends up on the “broadband siding”, criticizes Ispa Secretary General Charlotte Steenbergen.
Everything had started so well. Three years ago, the then government pounded a respectable broadband strategy out of the ground and set the country a clear goal: by 2030, all of Austria should be provided with gigabit-enabled connections. This should not only be possible through fiber optic lines, but above all through strong mobile broadband. When it came to setting up the first 5G networks, Austria was among the leaders internationally. But with the new version of the TKG, the ambitious goals could “hardly be achieved”, so Steenbergen.
Too high rents for 5G masts?
All three mobile operators entered into high expansion commitments when awarding the 5G frequencies in autumn. Municipalities that were previously underserved should now benefit from the expansion. But that is now becoming more expensive and could come later, so the criticism.
Procedures would take longer, the rents for 5G transmission sites on public property would be more expensive and it would not be better when expanding the cable connections: If a farmer damages a line under his field in the future, the operator will be liable, Arnoldner is annoyed. The industry will honor its commitments. However, the new law does not increase the desire to do the hard work and to provide all of Austria with fast internet in a few years.
