The government approved the co-financing of projects aimed at improving connectivity across the country
Slovenians living in remote and distant areas will soon have the opportunity to enjoy a proper lag-free experience. The country’s central government recently approved a new piece of legislation called the Regulation on Broadband Infrastructure Support that aims to provide the necessary assistance and co-funding to projects being developed in so-called “white areas”.
But what are these “white areas”? To put it simply that is the name carried by regions that have no existing broadband network infrastructure and there are no providers currently willing to do it due to unprofitability. For the most part, these areas are remote rural areas, far away from larger urban centres.
Main beneficiaries of the new legislation
The main goal of the new government support programme is not only to provide citizens with high-quality internet connection but to also give them the opportunity to make use of all the vital eGovernment services that are slowly becoming indispensable across Slovenia.
As part of the 2014-2020 Government Rural Development Programme, the Slovenian central authorities are committed to providing network transmission speed of at least 100 Mbps to the areas that are going to be covered by the support scheme. Furthermore, the plan is for at least 80% of households in these so-called “white areas” to have an internet connection by the end of the programming period.
The support programme has a special emphasis on cities, towns and villages with less than 5000 inhabitants in the regions of Carinthia, Podravina and Pomurje.
In neighbouring Austria, local authorities have also been benefitting from similar schemes, providing citizens long deprived of proper connectivity with high-quality user experience. In the region of Styria, 9 municipalities are currently undergoing construction efforts aimed at establishing the high-speed internet connection promised by regional authorities.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Anton Stoyanov
Quelle/Source: The Mayor, 17.01.2020
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