Romanians, closer to have full broadband Internet coverage; EUR 85.6 M from EU for Ro-Net project

In an attempt to close the gap between rural and urban areas, bringing broadband Internet closer to households, European authorities give a helping hand to Romania. The European Commission (EC) has approved the financial contribution to Ro-Net, a project worth EUR 85.6 million to get Internet broadband to 783 localities identified as ‘white spots’, the Ministry for the Information Society (MSI) announced in a press release on Tuesday.
According to the MSI, the project aims at “building a national broadband Internet infrastructure in disadvantaged areas, by using structural funds,” as a part of the Increase of Economic Competitiveness operational programme for assistance through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under Romania’s convergence goal. It would promote economic growth and job creation in the target localities.
This is a major project on Priority axis 3 ‘IT&C technology for the private and public sectors’, amounting to EUR 85,622.190.6, VAT included; the European grant for it is EUR 57,104,477.
By this project, Ro-Net will contribute in closing the gap between rural and urban areas, bringing broadband Internet closer to 130,000 households with 400,000 members, plus 8,500 enterprises and 2,800 public institutions by building a new distribution network of approximately 3,256 kilometres, according to ministry estimations.
The completion of the project will result in roughly 99.2 percent of Romanians having access to broadband Internet.
Telekom Romania is set to develop over the next two years the infrastructure of the distribution networks for high-speed connections in rural areas currently not covered by these services.