PPP tender for ultrafast broadband

The Digital Policy Ministry announced a tender for the implementation of a project for ultrafast broadband infrastructure on Wednesday. The development of the UFBB network will be implemented through a public-private partnership (PPP) and its budget amounts to 700 million euros, plus value-added tax.

The state’s participation amounts to 300 million euros (originating from the European Union’s Partnership Agreement for the Development Framework) and the remainder will come from private investment.

This means that it is set to be the biggest PPP project ever proclaimed in Greece. According to the general secretary for telecommunications and post, Vassilis Maglaras, it is also one of the largest broadband infrastructure projects being promoted in the EU at the moment.

The project’s aim is to offer 2.5 million citizens not included in the plans of telecoms suppliers the opportunity to obtain access to internet connections at speeds ranging from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps. In this context the country will be split into seven regions where the interested investors will be able to develop modern infrastructure and then sell it on to domestic service provides (Cosmote, Vodafone etc) so that the service reaches consumers.

Source: ekathimerini.com