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In order to tackle the challenges of connecting its widely dispersed population, Finland’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Agency for Rural Affairs, and Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority have come together to form the Finnish national Broadband Competence Office (BCO). The BCO also provides guidance for citizens, operators and broadband project promoters on good practices, State aid rules, funding and more.

The Connecting Europe Broadband Fund invests in underserved areas where there are strong opportunities for profitability.

Being connected via reliable high-speed broadband is essential for citizens, businesses and regions to stay competitive across the EU. Ensuring “nobody in the EU is left behind” is the essence of “territorial cohesion”, for which European Commission Directorate-General for Regional & Urban Policy (DG REGIO) is responsible. In this video, Rudolf Niessler, Director for Smart and Sustainable Growth & Southern Europe, and Marco Pino, Policy Analyst for Smart & Sustainable Growth, explain the actions being taken by DG REGIO to support broadband roll-out and help equip all EU regions for the future

Discover the overview of financial tools that can boost broadband investment, that the European Union has made available in order to support Member States and private investors, as well as to promote economic growth and opportunities.

The European Commission has just published a study on the implementation and monitoring of the Broadband Cost Reduction Directive. The Directive (2014/61/EU) aims to reduce the costs of deploying fast broadband networks through facilitating shared use and coordinated deployment of physical infrastructure such as ducts and poles within the electronic communications sector and across other sectors including energy, transport and water.

This study is designed to monitor the progress of EU Member States towards their specific broadband coverage objectives: 'Universal Broadband Coverage with speeds at least 30 Mbps by 2020' and 'Broadband Coverage of 50% of households with speeds at least 100 Mbps by 2020'. The collected data shows that over 219 million EU households (99.9%) had access to at least one of the main fixed or mobile broadband access technologies at the end of June 2017 (excluding satellite).

Broadband Competence Offices (BCOs) provide legal, technical and financial guidance to project promoters and policy makers to support broadband deployment at national, regional and local level. Support and training is available to BCOs, but the first step in ensuring that a BCO is effective lies in its set-up. This brochure outlines the steps for establishing an effective BCO in a Member State or region, as well as the funds and support available to BCOs at EU-level.

“The Helsinki Optical Fibre Cooperative” from Finland is one of the five winners of the European Broadband Awards 2017. The residents of Marttila in the Helsinki metropolitan area established a cooperative and have built their own high-capacity network. The cooperative members financed and planned the project themselves. Also much of the works has been done by members themselves, who continue to own and manage the network. The project resulted in 96% coverage and 70% penetration.

The 2017 Activity Report describes the programme and achievements of the first year of the Broadband Competence Offices (BCO) Network.

The Support Facility for the European Broadband Competence Offices (BCOs) Network offers support and training for BCOs through an annual programme of knowledge exchange and capacity building activities. The Annual Work Plan Summary gives an outline of the 2018 objectives and the activities planned to support BCOs in servicing their stakeholders, contributing to achieving the Digital Single Market connectivity targets.