A hundred and thirteen Bulgarian municipalities will be awarded grants by the European Commission for free high-speed WiFi access in public places under the WiFi4EU initiative. A total of 215 representatives of local authorities successfully applied for the competition announced in November. Winners from Bulgaria managed to apply in the first ten seconds following the launch of the competition competing with almost 13 000 participants. The grants were awarded on the first-come-first-served principle.
Bulgarian municipalities will be granted financing amounting to EUR 1 695 000, which is almost 4.04% of the total competition budget. The European Commission prepared a waiting list to receive grants in case any municipality withdraws.
Winners are expected to sign grant agreement with the EC by the end of 2018. In the next 18 months local authorities shall select the company to install and equip high-speed WiFi points.
The Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications informed all the participants in the competition and disseminated a draft grant agreement. The list with the winning municipalities is published on MTITC’s web page.
MTITC will continue to aid municipalities both winners in the past competition and those participating in competitions by 2020.
