The European Commission launches the 4th Round of Grants from WiFi4EU Initiative

Zagreb, March 5, 2020 - On Tuesday, March 17, 2020, at 1 p.m., the European Commission will launch a new call for grants, i.e. vouchers for the construction of Wi-Fi infrastructure in places where it is more crowded in order to  enable free WiFi The call will be open until March, 18, 2020, 5 p.m.

The allocation of 947 vouchers, individually amounting 15 000 EUR is predicted for this Call. The selection will be made according to priority criteria, i.e. the order of receipt of application by electronic means of (first come -first served). The minimum number of vouchers, insured for each Member State, regardless of the order of the call application, is 15 (equivalent to 225 000 EUR), while the maximum number has not been determined. As seen in previous two calls, eligible beneficiaries of allocated funds will be local self-government units or associations of local self-government units that have not received a single voucher so far but they have been registered on the WiFi4EU portal. Currently, more than 26 thousand local self-government units are registered on the portal, and registration is possible until the beginning of the Call. The amount of 485 local self-government units have been registered from Croatia, out of which  the amount of 438 had already   received vouchers worth 6,570,000 EUR from the previous three calls. According to it almost 80% of Croatian municipalities and cities have received vouchers, the majority have already implemented WiFi solutions in their territories and opened networks for free WiFi to the public.

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.