European Commission announces fourth and final Call of the WiFi4EU Initiative

ZAGREB, 22 May 2020 The fourth and final call of the WiFi4EU initiative will be open for applications from 3 June 2020 at 13 :00  to 4 June 2020 at 17:00 CEST. This call, previously planned for March of this year, has been postponed due to circumstances caused by the COVID-19 crisis throughout Europe.

This time the aim is to allocate EUR 14.2 million through 947 vouchers, in an individual amount of 15000 EUR. The selection will be made according to first priority criterion i.e. receipt of recipient’s order by electronic means (first come first served). The minimum number of vouchers secured for each Member State, regardless of the order of the call application, is 15 (equivalent to EUR 225 thousand) while maximum number has not been determined yet. As in previous two calls, eligible beneficiaries of allocated funds will be local self-government units or associations of local self-government units which, being registered on WiFi4EU, have not received a single voucher yet.

Through the previous three tenders, 438 local self-government units from Croatia have already won vouchers worth EUR 6.570.000 Thus, almost 80% of the Croatian municipalities and cities received vouchers, and a large number of them have already implemented WiFi solutions in their territories.

ABOUT HAKOM: HAKOM (www.hakom.hr) - Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries – ensures preconditions for a fair market competition, stable growth and environment for innovations in the electronic communications and postal services market. HAKOM protects users’ interests and the possibility of choice among various communications and postal services at affordable prices, defines sustainable competitive conditions for operators and service providers under fair conditions for return on investment, and provides support to economic growth, public services and the quality of life in the Republic of Croatia by using modern technologies. HAKOM’ strategic goals are: to promote regulation of the electronic communications and postal services market, to support growth of investments and innovations in the electronic communications and postal services market, to provide efficient use of limited resources, to accelerate the growth of broadband products and services, to provide affordable offers of communications and postal services, to provide protection and informing of users, to build an efficient and comprehensive information system, to define and implement efficient processes, and to acquire multi-disciplinary.