Lübeck switches fax devices: digital progress in city life!

Lübeck switches fax devices: digital progress in city life!

At the end of 2024, the Hanseatic city of Lübeck will switch off all fax equipment. This decision follows the decision of the German Bundestag to get out of fax technology. Exceptions are only the faxes for postal voting and the fire brigade's deaf emergency call, which must be preserved on the basis of legal requirements. In recent years, the number of fax devices in the city administration has already been significantly reduced.

Mayor Jan Lindenau intends to promote digitization in Lübeck with this measure. Digital alternatives to the fax are already available, including the online application for postal voting and the Nora emergency app app. Lübeck improved to eighth place in the current smart city index of the Digitalverband Bitkom e.V. after the previous year in which the city was still in 19th place. Over 200 service services can be offered digitally around the clock.

digital services and security considerations

The overview of online services can be called up on the website of the city of Lübeck at www.luebeck.de/oninedienste . In addition, central request management enables uncomplicated contact with the city administration at www.luebeck.de/kontakt . Fax technology, which has been in use since the 1970s, is now considered insecure for the transmission of sensitive data, since faxes are transmitted unencrypted as data packets and thus no longer meet the safety and data protection requirements.

As part of the digitization efforts in German cities, it is worth noting that Oldenburg is also listed in the "Smart City Index 2024" of the Digitalverband Bitkom. 82 major cities in Germany were examined here with over 100,000 inhabitants. Oldenburg took top 10 places from the previous year in two categories: 7th place in the "Energy and Environment" area with 78.7 points and 9th place in the "IT and Communication" category with 83.2 points. In the overall classification, however, Oldenburg fell by 14 positions in 34th place with an evaluation index of 72.9 points, which, however, means a slight improvement compared to the previous year.

For a top 10 placement, 79.8 points are now required, while only 76.6 points were required in the previous year. Oldenburg also cut off above average in the digital ranking of the major cities of Lower Saxony, with an average of 64.0 points in 2023 at 61.4 points in the previous year.

Further information on the developments in Lübeck are on the press release from Lübeck and for the results of the Smart City Index on the website of Oldenburg