The road for the signing of the PPP contract for the “Ultra-Fast Broadband Infrastructures” project, with a total budget of 870 million euros (including VAT) with the second contractor, Terna Fiber, opens. The contract has been submitted to the Court of Auditors, after many months of negotiations between the Ministry of Digital Governance and the contractor in order to agree on the outstanding issues.
The UFBB is considered an important project in order for Greece to reach the goals of the Digital Decade 2023, with universal coverage of all European citizens with optical fiber networks, capable of a connection speed of 1 Gbps. It will benefit about 830,000 households and businesses (over 18% of the country’s total) and 10,000 public buildings (schools, health centers, etc.), in areas that have no commercial interest for proers to invest in.
OTE and Terna Fiber
The corresponding contract with OTE was signed in June. The project, financed by the NSRF with 300 million euros, is died into 7 geographical areas (lots). OTE has taken over 3 of them and Terna Fiber has taken over the remaining 4, in which Terna Energy (GEK Terna group) and Grid Telecoms (subsidiary of ADMIE – Independent Energy Transmission Operator) participate.
It is estimated that in about two months it will be possible to sign the contract and put the project in its entirety into implementation, after years of delays.
