Public Invitation for Operator for Joint Construction of Broadband Infrastructure in Rural Areas Next Week

The state secretary at the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of Serbia, Tatjana Matic, announced that the ministry had initiated the project of the construction of broadband communication infrastructure in rural areas of Serbia. As she announced, the plan is to open the first public invitation for the operator for the joint construction of broadband infrastructure next week. The project is to be carried out based on the analyses, studies and availability maps prepared by the ministry in the past two years.

– It has been determined that, for slightly over half a million households in rural areas, there is no economic interest for operators to develop new generation networks, that is, high-speed internet, as said in the decision of the Commission for Control of State Aid – Matic said and clarified that the media had wrongly interpreted this to mean that as many households in Serbia have no internet connection of any kind, the ministry says on its website.

– Our analysis has shown that 5% of the households, that is, around 125,000, have no fixed internet access. As the high penetration of broadband internet has a considerable impact on the growth of the GDP and the employment, the bridging of the digital gap between urban and rural areas is of key importance for an even regional development – Matic specified.

She announced that, in the first phase of the project, in the spring of 2021, the construction of the infrastructure which will enable fast internet access (100 Mbps) for 90,000 households in rural areas would begin in the spring of 2021.

Funds of RSD 2,129,400,000 from the project loan of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are intended for the project of the construction of broadband communication infrastructure in rural areas.

Ministarstvo turizma i omladine Republike Srbije

EBRD Evropska banka za obnovu i razvoj Beograd

Ministry of Trade Tourism and Telecommunications

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Tatjana Matic

construction of broadband infrastructure

communications infrastructure

fixed internet