How the country's municipalities can benefit from the European program for free WIFI in their public spaces
As part of the European Initiative for the “Gigabit Society, 2025”, the European Union, in cooperation with the Member States, is promoting, through the WiFi for Europe (WiFi4EU) program, the development of WiFi networks that will provide citizens with free internet access in busy public places (eg squares, parks, public buildings, etc.).
The action is expected to start within the first quarter of this year and last until 2020. The total budget amounts to € 120 million and is expected to fund 6.000 - 8.000 WiFi networks throughout Europe. The beneficiaries are financed by issuing a voucher which is redeemed by the EU, after the installation and operation of the network.
Each municipality can receive only one ticket for the entire duration of the action, ie municipalities that have been selected to receive a ticket under a specific invitation are not eligible to apply for any subsequent invitations (municipalities that have applied but have not received a ticket, can try again). in case of next invitation).
For the current year the value of the ticket is 15.000 € and covers the cost of equipment and installation. The beneficiary bears the operating costs of the network (monthly subscription to a telecommunications provider and equipment maintenance). Beneficiaries can use the WiFi4EU voucher to partially finance a higher value project; therefore, any equipment and installation costs other than the voucher's value will be covered by other resources provided by the municipality and will be reimbursed to the supplier. Each ticket must be redeemed within 18 months of receipt.
A relevant web portal is expected to be launched in March, where anyone interested will have to register in order to be eligible to participate in the action. In order to use the portal, the interested party must have an account. When registering on the action portal, the interested parties will provide basic information concerning them and the contact details of their legal representative.
The registration process will be simple, so that each municipality can apply in the language of their choice, without the need for the mediation of a third party. The companies that wish to participate by providing equipment and installation services will also register on the same platform, stating the areas of the country where they can provide services.
The registration process is expected to take 6-8 weeks and in the next stage the distribution of the tickets will begin. It is noted that the distribution of the tickets will be done in order of priority, based on the date and time of submission of the electronic request (and not the registration on the portal) and for this reason it is very important the timely preparation of those interested, as it is very likely available tickets to be sold out within the first hours after the start of the disposal process.
In order to ensure a minimum level of balance in the allocation of program resources, the call for 2018 will allocate at least 15 tickets per country, while the total value of tickets per country should not exceed 8% of the budget of the first call for applications. It is noted that when submitting the requests, no technical details are submitted for the implementation of the network. This information is included in a special agreement signed with the supplier after obtaining the card.
More information on the action is available at. Also, those interested can contact the General Secretariat of Telecommunications and Posts (gge@yme.gov.gr) by typing "WiFi4EU" in the subject of the e-mail.
Source: News247
Discussion about this post