The winners of the New Generation Network tenders in rural areas were already known in February, but the projects are not yet advancing in the field because the promoters are still waiting for the approval of the community financing that supports the investment, confirmed today Paulo Campos, Secretary of State for Communications, on the sidelines of the 20th Communications Congress.
Rural fiber optic networks are part of the list of structuring projects defined by the Government in the area of Telecommunications and the Digital Agenda recently announced, but after some delays in the launch of tenders and the awarding of projects, these have not yet materialized on the ground .
Paulo Campos guarantees, however, that the promoters are prepared to move forward as soon as the financing is released in Brussels, with no anticipation in terms of the date.
Remember that after choosing a short-list, the Government announced in February the winners of three of the tenders for the installation of new generation communications networks in rural areas, attributing to DST Telecom the implementation of optical fiber in the North and South of the country. Viatel installed broadband networks in the Centro region.
DST’s investment, which joined Sonaecom in these tenders, will be around 108 million euros, 68 million for the North and 40 million for the South. These relate to the implementation of approximately eight thousand kilometers of optical fiber and part these amounts will be guaranteed by public money, as defined.
According to data shared by Paulo Campos, also in February this year, the installation of a new generation telecommunications network in the North, Center and South regions of the country results in a public and private investment of 156.5 million euros .
The Executive is expected to disburse 89.7 million euros, supporting 56 percent of the costs of installing the fiber infrastructure, using support of 50 million euros from the European Union. The rest will be compensated using other Community funds.
