Legislative Process at a Glance
The German Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Government Modernisation (BMDS) launched the formal consultation on the ministerial draft of the 2026 TKG Amendment Act on 2 March 2026. The bill is intended to implement the European Gigabit Infrastructure Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1309, “GIA”) at national level and to noticeably accelerate fibre and mobile network expansion in Germany. According to BMDS press release 10/2026, the key levers are “less bureaucracy, efficient procedures and more speed”.
The preceding policy paper was published in July 2025. The consultation period on the ministerial draft (“Referentenentwurf”) ended on 27 March 2026; the BMDS has received more than 70 statements from associations, companies and authorities, including Bitkom, BREKO, VDE FNN, VKU, GdW and individual carriers such as 1&1.
Timeline
- 1July 2025 – Publication and consultation of the policy paper
- 22 February 2026 – Working version of the ministerial draft (RefE)
- 32 March 2026 – Official consultation of the ministerial draft opens (BMDS press release 10/2026)
- 427 March 2026 – End of the consultation period for federal states and associations
- 5Pending – Cabinet decision, Federal Council referral and Bundestag readings
Quoting BMDS press release 10/2026, Federal Digital Minister Dr Karsten Wildberger states: “High-performance digital infrastructures are the backbone of a modern society.” The full ministerial draft including a synopsis with side-by-side comparison is available on the BMDS legislative pages.
Implementing the Gigabit Infrastructure Act
Regulation (EU) 2024/1309 – referred to as the Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA) – replaces the original Broadband Cost Reduction Directive 2014/61/EU and applies directly in the Member States. Because parts of the GIA contain opening clauses and require complementary national rules, the 2026 TKG Amendment Act aligns the national framework accordingly.
Focal areas include the Gigabit Register (Single Information Point), co-use rights for passive infrastructure, requirements for in-building networks and accelerated permitting procedures. The central wayleave and notification rule is recast in Section 127 of the draft TKG according to the synopsis.
An EU regulation applies directly. The 2026 TKG Amendment Act is therefore not a classic “transposition act” as it would be for a directive, but rather a complementary national framework: it provides procedures, competences, a sanctioning regime and national specifications – the substantive GIA obligations apply regardless.
Right to Full Rollout and In-Building Networks
The most striking intervention is the new right to full rollout in Section 144 draft TKG: operators connecting a building to a fibre network may also deploy the fibre infrastructure throughout the entire building, down to each apartment’s connection point. Owners receive an opt-out window to deploy themselves or to commission a third party; commissioning deadlines are tight.
| Provision | Content | Deadline / Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Sec. 144 – Right to full rollout | Cabling across the whole building after connection | Commissioning within 18 months; 20-month window from connection |
| Sec. 144 – Owner opt-out | Self-installation or third-party deployment | 2-month declaration period; 24-month delivery period |
| Sec. 145 – Minimum technical specs | Four fibres from connection point to termination; one continuous | 10-year documentation retention |
| Sec. 72 – Fibre provision fee | Maximum apportionable charge per residential unit | EUR 540 → EUR 720 gross, spread over 12 years |
| Sec. 22b – Access to in-building cabling | Access up to the first distribution point | All “reasonable access requests”, non-discriminatory |
In its statement of 2 March 2026, the German broadband association BREKO warns that the in-building co-use obligation in Section 22b draft TKG could encourage uneconomic overbuild and weaken investment incentives for fibre rollouts. The BMDS, however, regards the obligation as a necessary GIA implementation safeguarding competition at the apartment connection.
Accelerated Permitting and Notification
On the outdoor side, the ministerial draft targets a tangible acceleration of wayleave permitting. According to the synopsis to the RefE, Section 127 draft TKG introduces a shortened deemed-consent period: complete applications are deemed approved after two months – down from three. Complementing this, the draft introduces a notification procedure for spatially limited projects to be completed within six months.
This is flanked by the clarification in Section 2 sentence 3 draft TKG: the construction and modification of telecommunications lines is classified as a project of overriding public interest. This simplifies weighing exercises against competing protected interests – for example in nature conservation or heritage law.
Standard permitting procedure
Complete applications are deemed granted after two months (Sec. 127 draft TKG); the previous default was three months.
Notification procedure
Spatially limited projects completed within six months only require a notification; the municipality must confirm receipt within one month.
Overriding public interest
Sec. 2 sentence 3 draft TKG privileges telecom lines against competing protected goods in the weighing process.
Co-use of railway and power grids
Sec. 106a (railway infrastructure) and Sec. 134a (electricity distribution networks) open access for mobile and fibre rollouts.
Operators submitting wayleave applications regularly should adapt internal templates now to the shorter two-month period and to the new notification procedure. Mandatory fields and plausibility checks should be documented so that “complete” within Section 127 is reached without follow-up questions – otherwise the clock does not start ticking.
Gigabit Register, Access Regime and Market Regulation
Sections 78–86 draft TKG restructure the central Gigabit Register as the national Single Information Point under the GIA. It covers six information categories: existing infrastructure, network availability maps, future expansion plans, planned construction works, public properties and areas requiring expansion. Access is structured in three tiers (public, project-specific, authority); non-public access is logged.
On the market side, Section 22a draft TKG deserves particular attention: in areas where the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) identifies “major and persistent barriers” to infrastructure replication, operators may be required to grant open access on fair, non-discriminatory and reasonable terms. Complementary changes to the market analysis rules address the copper-to-fibre migration, including publication duties for the migration roadmap.
Direct submission obligations to the Gigabit Register address network operators, public bodies and funding agencies. In case of breach, the draft provides for sanctions in Section 228(1) draft TKG. Anyone without clean data flows between asset management, GIS systems and the register interface risks fines and reputational damage.
Action Items for Telecommunications Operators
Although the bill still has to pass parliament, the probability of entering into force is high. The central obligations – GIA-compliant data register, right to full rollout, notification procedure, access regime – are already very concrete. Operators starting preparations now can use the process as a competitive advantage instead of running after compliance.
Recommended preparation steps
- 1Map the RefE synopsis (working version 02/02/2026) against your processes – particularly Sec. 22a/b, Sec. 72, Sec. 78–86, Sec. 127, Sec. 144–145.
- 2Prepare the technical and organisational interface to the Gigabit Register (data quality, geo coordinates, refresh cadence).
- 3Align in-building processes between housing associations, owners and contractors with the two-month opt-out window.
- 4Update wayleave templates to the shortened two-month deadline and the new notification procedure.
- 5Update the security concept under Section 166 TKG and ISMS documentation to reflect new in-building and co-use scenarios.
From an information-security angle, the interaction with existing regimes is especially interesting: anyone maintaining a security concept under Section 166 TKG must integrate new data flows (register, notification procedure, co-use) cleanly into asset inventories and risk analyses. A structured ISMS based on ISO 27001 enables a controlled rollout instead of point-by-point fixes.
BMDS – overview page “TKG-Änderungsgesetz 2026”; BMDS press release 10/2026 of 2 March 2026; ministerial draft RefE_TKG-Änderungsgesetz_2026 (working version 02/02/2026, BMDS); Regulation (EU) 2024/1309 (Gigabit Infrastructure Act); BREKO statement of 2 March 2026; further statements (Bitkom, VKU, VDE FNN, GdW, 1&1) on the RefE.