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Austria begins expansion of high-speed broadband network

Xinhua, May 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

Austria is to expand its high-speed broadband network at the cost of 1.1 billion U.S. dollars up to the year 2020, after a year of debate in the Austrian parliament.

Finance Minister Hans-Joerg Schelling confirmed Wednesday the funding for the expansion would be made available, with local municipalities able to apply for subsidies for the installation of pipes carrying fiber optic cables from Thursday.

A total of 330 million U.S. dollars will be available for 2015, with the government to contribute up to half of costs to a maximum of 550,000 U.S. dollars per project and telecommunications companies the remainder, Minister of Transport, Innovation and Technology Alois Stoeger said, according to a report from Die Presse.

The expansion is designed to bring Austria in line with other European nations in being able to provide internet speeds of about 100 megabits per second, something that has up to now primarily only been available in the national capital Vienna and a few other larger cities.

Telecommunications companies and local internet providers had up to now often not deemed high-speed expansions to sparsely-populated areas to be viable. Endit