Germany – Telephone and data transmission services – Errichtung und Betrieb eines Gigabitnetzes im Kreis Recklinghausen (Graue Flecken)

The district of Recklinghausen (hereinafter referred to as the "granting authority") is located in the northern Ruhr area in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The population is approximately 620,000. The district consists of the ten medium and large municipal towns of Castrop-Rauxel, Datteln, Dorsten, Gladbeck, Haltern am See, Herten, Marl, Oer-Erkenschwick, Recklinghausen and Waltrop with approximately 30,000 to around 120,000 inhabitants. The procurement procedure aims to find a network operator who will provide future-oriented broadband supply for all addresses of the subject matter of the concession, ensuring the supply of underserved addresses (Gigabit 2.0). The granting authority fulfils a wide range of mandatory and voluntary tasks within the framework of general public services. The established voluntary tasks include economic development, which has already dealt with the economically relevant questions of broadband supply and digitalisation to the necessary extent at district level. The expansion of high-performance broadband connections serves not only the basic public services, but is an essential prerequisite for economic growth and increasing prosperity. The granting authority's aim is to provide each household and each company in the project area with a powerful Gigabit broadband connection of 1 Gigabit/s symmetrically in the medium term. To this end, the granting authority submitted an application to the Federal Government for a grant on 27.09.2024 and received a notification of a grant in preliminary amount (Annex 01a) and the amendment notice (Annex 01b) on 26.02.2026. Details can be found in the performance description.