The Digital Policy Ministry in Greece announced tender for the development and operations of Ultrafast broadband infrastructure (UFBB) project in Greece under Public-Private Partnership scheme.
The estimated investment for the developmet of UFBB is between EUR 700 million (US$ 780.90 million) and EUR 870 million (US$ 970.84 million). Out of which approximately EUR 300 million (US$ 334.70 million) will be contributed by public authority, of which EUR 265 million (US$ 295.62 million) will come from the Operational Program "Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship, Innovation 2014-2020" (OPAVE) and EUR 35 million (US$ 39.04 million) from the Rural Development Program ((RDP) 2014-2020). The remaining EUR 400 million (US$ 446.36) investment will be provided by the private developer.
UFBB is the biggest PPP project ever procured in Greece. It is also one of the largest projects of broadband infrastructure currently being promoted at European Union level.
The goal of the project is to provide 2.5 million people not included in private telecom operator plans with the access to telecom networks of a new generation of ultra-high speeds (speeds of at least 100 Mbps, upgraded to 1 Gbps)
For the ease of execution, the country will be divided into seven geographic regions. The contractors will be required to develop modern infrastructure, which will then be shipped to domestic providers (OTE, Vodafone, etc.) to reach consumers.
This infrastructure will help provide the digital boost and background to future development in the field (5th Generation Networks, Smart Cities Infrastructure, Internet of Things, etc.).
Ministry of Digital Policy has worked with EU on implementation of the project to attract the investors.