Federal Agency for Public Safety Digital Radio – that’s what it says on our official sign. Abbreviated: BDBOS.

The full name reveals the original purpose of our authority: to set up, operate and continuously develop the Public Safety Digital Radio – the nationwide uniform digital voice and data radio system for the police and fire brigade, emergency services, as well as rescue services and disaster relief and civil defence authorities at federal and state level.

The BDBOS was founded in 2007 with this mandate. In 2019, our range of tasks was expanded when we also took over the operation of the federal government’s networks – a uniform and highly available network infrastructure that all federal authorities use for their joint communication and collaboration – sometimes referred to simply as the “government network”.

We are also responsible for the nation’s core transport network, the infrastructural backbone of both the federal networks and the Public Safety Digital Radio network. And another element not to be forgotten in our portfolio: the Local Internet Registry de.government, the central IP address allocation function within the government’s public administration.

Network operator of the federal government

All these tasks make us the federal government’s network operator for critical communication infrastructures. Our networks and services make it possible for the government, authorities and emergency, security and rescue services to communicate securely and reliably – anytime and anywhere.

In doing so, we establish the decisive prerequisites for the fulfilment of the state’s tasks, a functioning modern state and the essential cohesion of social life. And we are an integral part of the German nation’s security architecture.

Facts and figures

Our authority currently has more than 1,000 posts and a budget of EUR 620.5 million.

The BDBOS has its headquarters in Berlin. Further subordinate locations are also located in Berlin as well as in Bonn.

We are a federal institution under public law, and are – in organisational terms – part of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat). The public purposes and tasks fulfilled by our federal organisation are defined by a federal law: the BDBOS statute. This has also granted our organisation legal capacity. This means that we participate in legal transactions as the bearer of our own rights and obligations.