The Ministry of Digital Governance’s action to subsidize households and businesses, through a voucher, in order to connect to the Internet at speeds of at least 250 Mbps will be implemented in the coming days.
Under the name Gigabit Voucher Scheme and based on the scheme’s budget of €80 million, each beneficiary will be subsidised for connection fees and a monthly fee of €200 for two years. Based on the above figures, the beneficiaries will be around 400 thousand households and businesses.
The aim is to increase the penetration of fiber optic networks to homes and businesses (FTTH) so that the country can move faster from copper to fiber optics.
The total economic value of the voucher is set at €200 per beneficiary household or SME. Each assisted household or SME will only be able to receive assistance once under the program.
All citizens, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (including traders) who do not already have a broadband connection with a download speed of more than 100 Mbps and reside or have their headquarters, respectively, in buildings located in the intervention areas are eligible.
What is included in the 200 euro voucher
The Gigabit Service should cumulatively meet the following minimum requirements:
– Have either a download speed greater than or equal to 250 Mbps or a symmetrical speed greater than or equal to 100 Mbps (primarily targeted at enterprises). The minimum speeds should be available to beneficiaries during peak hours.
– Should include the end-user terminal equipment (modem/router) necessary for its operation
– To be provided at a discount at least equal to the amount of the voucher compared to the corresponding plans (with the same speed characteristics and including including by-products) offered in the rest of the country. The discount may be allocated in any way within the period of the service contract, in accordance with the provider’s commercial policy (e.g. discount on connection/set-up costs, free service for some months, uniform discount on the monthly fee throughout the contract, or combinations of these).
– If provided by a vertically integrated provider whose market share in the retail broadband market is greater than 20% then the provider must provide at least one wholesale service corresponding to each available speed (or combination of download/upload speeds) of the retail products offered in the action and which allows other providers to provide a corresponding retail service.
