Germany Digitalization Drive Sets New Targets

The country’s first minister for digitalization and government modernization, Karsten Wildberger, has made speed and measurable results his message. After six months in office, he has assembled a ministry from teams scattered across several portfolios and begun to centralize responsibilities. The practical aim is straightforward: if another federal ministry launches a digital project, his team must be involved, and core services for citizens and companies should be standardized.

This policy shift is a reaction to long-standing fragmentation. Germany still ranks low among EU peers on digital service readiness, and many everyday procedures require paper documents or in-person visits. The Germany digitalization drive seeks to break that pattern by setting shared targets with industry, creating enforceable user rights for online access, and building common technical rails that can support secure identity and data exchange.

Stakeholder dialogue and targets for fiber rollout

Wildberger convened a large stakeholder dialogue in Berlin, bringing major telecom providers, fiber companies, associations, the federal regulator, and representatives from the states together. The meeting’s tone was unusually aligned for a sector that often disagrees over timelines and responsibilities. Participants agreed to pursue specific KPIs for the switch from copper to fiber and to meet regularly under ministry moderation to keep the agenda moving.

A draft roadmap previews a Memorandum of Understanding titled “Bestes Netz für Deutschland,” slated for the first quarter of 2026. The signatories would include companies, associations, and government actors. The idea is to define measurable progress, not only in kilometers of laid fiber but in live connections. Industry leaders signaled support, while also emphasizing that success depends on predictable regulation, streamlined permits, and clarity about the glide path away from legacy DSL.

Germany digitalization drive and the copper switch-off

A contentious but central element is the long-term retirement of copper lines. Current planning expects the copper network to be fully shut down between 2035 and 2040 as fiber coverage and adoption grow. To avoid counting passive infrastructure that nobody uses, the minister and several companies favor KPIs such as “Homes Activated,” which track the number of households with fiber actually installed in the dwelling and activated with paying customers.

Even with record construction, the baseline is challenging. By year’s end, around half of households are expected to have fiber passing their street, but far fewer will have completed in-building connections or active contracts. The gap between “homes passed” and “homes activated” illustrates why the Germany digitalization drive puts attention on customer uptake, not only trenching. Clear milestones on decommissioning DSL, coordinated with consumer protection and competition safeguards, are meant to bring certainty for network planning and fair migration.

OZG 2.0 and the digital identity wallet

While cables matter, the administrative layer is just as important. The Online Access Act 2.0, in force since the summer of 2025, establishes a legal right for citizens and businesses to access federal administration services electronically, with full enforceability within four years. To underpin this right, the federal level is providing “base services” such as a standardized user account and secure digital mailbox so that people do not face a patchwork of incompatible portals.

Identity is the front door. The ministry has started testing the European Digital Identity Wallet alongside the national BundID account. The objective is a seamless sign-in that works across agencies, with strong security by design. If the tests succeed, key life events—address registration, driver’s license applications, and family benefits—should be completable online, end-to-end, using a smartphone. The Germany digitalization drive links that identity layer with service design requirements around accessibility and user-friendliness, so that forms and interfaces meet common standards rather than local quirks.

From paper files to shared registers

A major pillar is the “once-only” principle. People and companies should not repeatedly submit the same evidence to different offices. Instead, with consent, agencies must reuse verified data from authoritative registers. Implementing this model requires digitizing and interlinking dozens of core registers by 2028. It also requires cultural change inside public administration, where the default has long been paper, local autonomy, and bespoke IT.

The technical strategy includes a standardized government stack, often described as the “Deutschland-Stack” or D-stack. This approach defines interfaces and cloud services that ministries, states, and municipalities can adopt so data moves reliably between systems. Today, more than eight thousand systems and portals exist across federal, state, and municipal layers, many of which cannot talk to one another. The Germany digitalization drive aims to reduce that fragmentation through shared components, migration paths, and cataloged interfaces.

Germany digitalization drive and telecom industry response

Network operators say they welcome the ministry’s convening role and the focus on measurable outcomes. They endorse a holistic view that includes copper, fiber, and TV-cable infrastructures, as well as a frank discussion of costs. Several associations back the new dialogue format but ask for binding regulatory frameworks to protect competition as markets consolidate and as legacy assets are retired. They also call for faster permits and lighter bureaucracy so that crews can roll out fiber without long administrative delays.

Some states missed the first high-level meeting due to scheduling conflicts, but most actors indicate they will participate in the MoU process. The ministry’s expectation is that the Germany digitalization drive will set sector-wide norms: clear KPIs, dates for DSL switch-off in defined areas, and consumer safeguards so that users are not left without service. Where operators face thin business cases, targeted incentives or coordinated civil works could lower deployment costs, especially in less dense regions.

A pragmatic path from backlog to delivery

Wildberger’s early speeches strike a pragmatic tone: less talk about visions, more about execution sequences. His ministry began in temporary offices that used to be a car dealership, a detail that underlines the start-up mood. Staff arrived from five different ministries and the chancellery to place cybersecurity, identity, and service design under one roof. The next step is translating rights and KPIs into delivery plans that agencies and companies can execute, monitor, and adjust.

The initial slate of “finishable” projects includes nationwide online vehicle registration. Today, about ten million transactions a year depend on hundreds of decentralized offices. Centralizing the service and its interfaces could relieve local budgets and set a model for other processes. The Germany digitalization drive connects such quick wins to deeper reforms so that successful projects become reusable modules, not one-off exceptions.

Implications for expats in Germany

Expats should see two layers of improvement. First, identity and access. If the European Digital Identity Wallet and BundID integration proceed as planned, foreign residents will have a clearer, standardized path into federal services with fewer in-person appointments. Second, service design. As OZG 2.0 rights take effect, agencies must offer consistent online experiences that are accessible and clearer about required documents.

In practical terms, the Germany digitalization drive should reduce repeated submissions of the same data, shorten waiting times, and make life events such as address registration or vehicle paperwork more predictable. Adoption will not be instant, and local differences will persist during the transition. However, the combination of legal rights, common identity tools, and measure-driven network upgrades signals a real shift from past fragmentation.