WiFi4EU: Registration Opens for EU Financing of Free WiFi for Municipalities

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The first call for municipality applications for free Wi-Fi hotspots will open Tuesday, May 15, at 13:00 (CEST), the European Commission announced on Monday.

Through this call some 1,183 municipalities will receive a WiFi4EU voucher of 15,000 euros to finance Wi-Fi equipment and its installation in public spaces.

According to the Commission’s announcement, upon receiving the voucher, municipalities will have to offer secure Wi-Fi services, free-of-charge and without adverts, for at least three years.

Funding will only be provided for networks that do not duplicate already existing private or public free Wi-Fi services of a similar quality in the same public spaces.

To be eligible to apply, municipalities need to be registered on the WiFi4EU.eu web portal, which opened on March 20.

The Commission said that over 17,000 municipalities have already registered and that the selection will be based on a “first-come first-served” basis.

To ensure a balanced geographical distribution among Members States, each country will obtain a minimum of 15 and maximum of 95 vouchers.

This is the first of a total of five calls that will be published until 2020.