Last week, the European Parliament, Council and Commission came to an agreement that will support the installation of free Wi-Fi hotspots in towns and local communities across the EU.
The WiFi4EU initiative has been launched in support of the vision of having “every European village and every city with free wireless internet access around the main centres of public life by 2020.” An overall amount of €120 million will be used to fund free public Wi-Fi services in 6,000 to 8,000 municipalities across all Member States. You can read the full press release here.
WiFi4EU’s ‘grant system’ – that is, having municipalities submit proposals for their public Wi-Fi services/offerings and receiving funds to reimburse a large percentage of the applicable costs – promises to have very positive benefits for the entire EU.
WBA’s take:
In short, this is a great step forward for the EU in regard to bringing connectivity to residents across the continent but ‘connecting the unconnected’– a concept that the WBA strongly believes in, as seen in our upcoming World Wi-Fi Day initiative. Both the WBA and the WBA’s Connected City Advisory Board initiative have been advocating the proliferation of Public Wi-Fi, as a driver to provide seamless, secure and interoperable connectivity and to use Public Wi-Fi to support Smart City initiatives, as outlined in its Connected City Blueprint. This is a story that the WBA will be keeping a close eye on, and will continue to bring updates via our website and social media channels as they are made available.
Did you know that there are upwards of 4 billion people around the world with no Internet access? Get more facts and stats on the digital divide on our World Wi-Fi Day website here.
