Fight against the dead zone
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A new development area in Havelland has been waiting for an internet connection for a year
The residents of the new settlement “Am Sandbogen” in Grünefeld in Schönewalde-Glien have fulfilled their dream of owning their own little house. But since moving in, they have had a new dream: a working telephone and internet. Von Claudia Baradoy
When Steve Hildebrand wants to make a call, he can only do it in the garden, and only with his cell phone. Even this connection is often bad. “It’s extremely stressful. We don’t always have such nice weather, there are cold and rainy days, and then always having to run out to look for a net, that’s not great!” says the resident of the new “Am Sandbogen” settlement. in Grünefeld, a district in the municipality of Schönwalde-Glien in the Havelland district.
The dream of the landline telephone
Steve Hildebrand can only dream of a landline telephone. He has been living with his wife and child in the new settlement with a dozen houses for a year. The small family moved out of Berlin, believing that there would be no problem in getting a telephone and internet connection. But for a year now, despite many inquiries at DNS-Net, nothing has happened: “What annoys me the most is that my wife could actually work from home. That would be a great relief for us,” says Hildebrand. So she had to go to Berlin-Mitte instead. “It’s a miserably long commute to work. But she can’t work from home because there’s no internet!”
An empty pipe dangles from the sand hill
Michael Fritsche lives directly opposite. His house is also finished, the freshly sown lawn is sprouting in the garden, trees and bushes are planted. But an empty pipe dangles from the sand hill in front of the house – useless and empty, says Michael Fritsche. That’s where the fiber optic cable is supposed to come out at some point. The fact that this has not been the case for a long time annoys him, he says.
Michael Fritsche is a self-employed entrepreneur, works from home and relies on fast internet. That’s why he paid a lot of money to have a satellite system built on his roof – not a permanent solution: “You can’t rely on it as much as you can on a landline connection, which would of course be particularly good if it were fiber optics,” he says . It’s not the connection with his satellite system, “that always fluctuates.”
A year without a digital connection
The people of Grünfeld have so far not been able to get out of the radio hole – even with the help of the local advisory board. The Hildebrands, Fritsches and other residents have turned to the district council member Jörg Schönberg (left). “We ran from pillar to post,” they wrote to the investor, DNS-Net and other stakeholders. “Everyone talks their way out,” says Schönberg in an interview with rbb. “It can’t be in these times that a number of families have been here without a digital connection to the world for a year. Now something has to finally happen.”
Appointment with DNS-Net pending
DNS-Net has been laying fiber optics right in Schönwalde-Glien for a few weeks. But only where there are enough fiber optic customers. According to DNS-Net, the expansion in Grünefeld is voluntary and completely self-sufficient. Therefore, this measure must be checked thoroughly, informs DNS-Net at the request of rbb.
Isn’t it financially worthwhile for DNS-Net to connect the small street “Am Sandbogen” in Grünefeld because there are only a dozen houses there? “The Gruenefeld district is currently not yet fixed in the expansion plan in such a way that it can be named bindingly,” writes DNS-Net. And: The municipal administration rejected a cooperation agreement with DNS-Net.
In the town hall they are now looking at how to get the cow off the ice in order to get Grünefeld online after all. Mayor Bodo Oehme (CDU) explained in the rbb that there should be an appointment for this. “We have now agreed with the regional manager of DNS-Net that there will be a joint appointment at which the citizens concerned, the investor, DNS-Net and the community will see together how a solution can be found.”
The Green fields now hope that this conversation will come as soon as possible. He stays tuned, the mayor also assures the rbb. Steve Hildebrand will probably still have to run into the garden with his cell phone to make a call. Unfortunately, DNS-Net has not yet suggested a specific date for the meeting in the town hall, says Oehme.
Broadcast: Antenne Brandenburg, June 1st, 2023, 5:00 p.m