The Commission has granted awards to innovative broadband deployment projects and successful infrastructures at the European Broadband Awards.

After a two-year interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this annual event has returned showcasing best practices and examples of fast and innovative broadband rollout.

One winning project gave 93,000 homes in Yvelines high-speed connections thanks to attracting private investment to a sparsely populated area. The jury also recognised Digital Nord Pas-de-Calais for the quick coverage of a large area with fibre optics. The awarded public-private collaboration in Navarra led to broadband access for all municipalities of varying population size. The fibre-optic project in Lichtenstein will ensure 25,000 households have competitive deals for communication services.  The winning Bautzen broadband project is allowing 8,800 businesses to adapt to demands for remote work.  Nearly all local SMEs in St. Nikolai im Sausal have access to fibre. The jury also applauded the cross-border cooperation to roll out optic fibre across a forested area, as well as EllaLink, an underwater information highway linking more than 65 million users and 12,000 institutions in Europe and Latin America.

The Broadband Awards ceremony brought together finalists with projects in advanced phases of implementation from Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden. All finalists are in the advanced stages of implementation and cover all technologies.

Connectivity is a central element of Europe’s digital transformation. One of the key targets outlined in the Policy Programme: a Path to the Digital Decade is Gigabit coverage for everyone in the EU by 2030. Fast internet opens the door to innovation for businesses and gives citizens better access to key online services, education and information.

More information about the innovative broadband deployment projects

Source: European Commission I Digital (https://bit.ly/3RvMeTG)