“Our aim as the federal government is to equip Austria with comprehensive, gigabit-capable internet connections by 2030. The second broadband billion paves the way to achieving this goal. We will be making 1.4 billion euros of new funds available for the expansion until 2026. This is the largest broadband funding budget we have ever had in Austria! Following intensive negotiations and the completion of the pre-notification process, the special directives were submitted to the European Commission for notification. This means that our new funding calls can start at the end of February,” says Elisabeth Köstinger.
In the course of the calls which ran until the end of 2021, over 1 billion euros of funding were allocated to approx. 1,760 projects submitted by over 600 applicants. The funding allocation process directly initiates broadband expansion in over 1,600 of the approx. 2,100 Austrian communities.