Broadband expansion; application for the laying or modification of a telecommunications line in the public road network

If a telecommunications company wishes to use public roads for the laying of telecommunications lines or the modification of existing lines, it must apply for approval in accordance with the Telecommunications Act.

In principle, the use of public roads and their components is permitted to everyone within the scope of their dedication for traffic (public use). Public use primarily includes traffic in the narrower sense, i.e. in the sense of movement, relocation and transportation. Any use that goes beyond public use constitutes special use.

Consent is required for the use of traffic routes by telecommunications lines in accordance with the Telecommunications Act (TKG).

You are a telecommunications company with an authorization of use within the meaning of § 125 TKG and would like to use a public road for the laying or modification of lines.

The application for approval of the relocation must be submitted to the responsible road construction authority. The districts or independent cities are responsible for district roads, the municipalities for municipal roads and the state building authorities for federal and state roads outside of local thoroughfares. Framework approval is possible for an expansion project in an urban or municipal area. Working aids can be found in the Forms section.

Within local thoroughfares, the responsibilities for approval for federal, state and district roads are regulated as follows:

• Federal roads: Municipalities with more than 80,000 inhabitants are responsible in local thoroughfares. In the other municipalities, the municipalities are responsible for footpaths and parking spaces, while the state building authorities are responsible for road lanes.
• State and district roads: Municipalities with more than 25,000 inhabitants are responsible for state and district roads. The municipalities are responsible for sidewalks and parking spaces on through roads in other municipalities, the state building authorities are responsible for the carriageways of state roads and the districts are responsible for the carriageways of district roads. In the case of cycle paths in local thoroughfares, it depends on whether they exist or are planned on the adjoining open stretches. If this is the case, the state building authorities are responsible for cycle paths on state roads and the administrative districts for cycle paths on district roads. Otherwise, the municipalities are responsible for the cycle paths.