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Telecom. IT : More than 170 localities n the rural area to be connected to broadband Internet by the end of 2017
More than 170 localities in the rural area will have access to broadband Internet by the end of this year, due to the Ro-Net project, the Minister of Communications and Information Society, Lucian Sova, stated on Tuesday, while attending the opening event of the cyber security course organized by the Romanian National Computer Security Incident Response Team (CERT-RO) and Agerpres.
"Unfortunately, in the rural area, there are many "white areas", as we call them. Our Ministry has managed to unblock Ro-Net, so that we have Internet access, as we spoke, in some of the very poor rural areas, which are uninteresting from a commercial viewpoint for the specific communications developers. We estimate that, by the end of the year, two bands will have signal, together with the statutory undertaker, Telekom. There will be more than 170 localities with signal of 780 and they are to be connected to broadband Internet, under this programme benefiting from European funds. There will be access ensured to the most 780 isolated areas of Romania," said the Minister of Communications.
Moreover, Lucian Sova underlined that, right now, there are certain debates at the level of the relevant ministry focusing on the implementation of the NIS Directive (Directive on security of network and information systems), "which establishes a legal cyber defense framework at a European level but also in Romania."
Ro-Net is a major project financed with European structural funds. Late in May, the European Commission decided to modify this project and split it into two stages. The total approved value for the first stage of the project is 18.8 million euros, out of which 12.5 million represent co-financing via the European Fund for Regional Development. The project's budget for the second stage is 53 million euros.
According to the Ministry of Communications and Information Society (MCSI), "RO-Net will cover 783 of the 2,268 localities identified as 'white zones,' which will help reducing the digital gap between the urban and rural areas, with broadband Internet to be brought closer to 130,000 households, with more than 400,000 people, 8,500 enterprises and 2,800 public institutions." The two operators designated to implement the projects, after a tender organized by the Ministry of Communications and Information Society, are Telekom Communications and Telekom Mobile.
The Romanian National Computer Security Incident Response - CERT-RO is a public institution responsible for preventing, analyzing, identifying and reacting to cyber infrastructure related incidents, which ensure the functionalities of public utility or services of the information society.