German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a press conference after a German cabinet meeting in Meseberg, Germany, on Nov. 18, 2019. The German government has approved a mobile service strategy to ensure nationwide coverage with mobile voice and data services, the German Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure announced on Monday. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)
BERLIN, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- The German government has approved a mobile service strategy to ensure nationwide coverage with mobile voice and data services, the German Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure announced on Monday.
Germany would make around 1.1 billion euros (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) in funds available in order to provide mobile phone coverage all across Germany.
At the moment, there were still around 5,000 areas without signal receptions in Germany.
"No other technology has determined the digital transformation of society as much as mobile communications over the past few years," said German Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer. "A nationwide supply of mobile communications is long overdue."
Over the next two years, "we will gradually move into rural areas as well, as the farmer on his field will be given the opportunity to build a 5G network through our subsidy programs," Helge Braun, head of the German Chancellery, told the public broadcaster ZDF on Monday.
In addition, the German government would establish a mobile communications infrastructure company that would "actively accelerate and support the expansion of mobile communications."
"We have a lot of work ahead of us," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday after the cabinet meeting. "Digitalization will dramatically change our society. It is already doing it today."
