By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
Following a famously botched attempt at starting the WiFi4EU grant process in May of this year, the European Commission has now issued a revamped ‘indicative roadmap’ for the free Wi-Fi grant awards. Municipalities interested in receiving a €15,000 grant towards purchase and installation of Wi-Fi network equipment can now expect the EC’s grant portal to reopen in late September.
It has been a long time coming: The European Commission’s plan to award €120M in grants towards free Wi-Fi across the EU has thus far been plagued by delays and technical glitches. Now the EC has issued a revamped schedule for the project aiming for a late September restart date.
All the details about the new roadmap can be found here on the EC’s WiFi4EU website and the main graphic has been reproduced below, Copyright European Commission.
In brief the total number of grants for the first call has been increased to 2,500 representing a total value of €37.5 million. Winners will be announced about 6 weeks after the call, the European Commission says in the graphic.
The EC also says that grant recipients will be required to ‘sign an agreement’ although the content of such an agreement has yet to be disclosed. Finally – and importantly: Wi-Fi installation companies will only be able to cash their 15,000 EUR vouchers once they have reported back to the portal that the Wi-Fi network is ‘operational’, the EC says.
Wi-Fi NOW has previously reported on progress of the WiFi4EU project here and here. For all the details on the WiFi4EU program meet Head of Unit Carola Reyners Fontana at Wi-Fi NOW Europe expo & conference in Berlin this November 6-8.
Below: New roadmap information on WiFi4EU released & copyright European Commission.
/Claus.