The government issued a call for providers to bid for contracts on the nationwide Wi-Fi access network and Wi-Fi hotspots network in an invitation posted today on the government’s Diavgeia website. The project will be funded by the National Strategic and Reference Framework (NSRF) and is budgeted at 25 million euro from the initial amount that was earmarked at 15 million euro.
The project concerns a total of 325 municipalities, 100 archaeological sites and museums and 200 ports and wharves. Once the program is implemented there will be free wireless connections across Greece at 4,000 outdoor and indoor public areas around the country, such as squares, walkways, playgrounds, public libraries, museums etc. Citizens will be able to connect for a period of 30 minutes, provided they are within 20 and 100 metres from the indoor and outdoor access points respectively. Each point will be able to serve about 40 to 50 users simultaneously. Some places, such as the Municipality of Athens, will not take part in the program because they are already implementing similar initiatives.