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In rural Latvia, an EU-funded start-up is using digital connectivity to promote healthy bee colonies and modern hive management. Thanks to €15,000 in LEADER funding covering two thirds of the total budget, Jānis Kronbergs developed the BeeKing app, which aims to help beekeepers – and especially newcomers – to learn from others, implement best practices and become more efficient. In this video, he explains the tool as well as its motivation, saying that “bees are very important for our nature, for pollination and biodiversity” and digital technologies can help beekeepers stay competitive.

As part of the Catalonian citizens’ initiative, Guifi.net, volunteers have helped install over 40,000 nodes, connecting 100,000 rural inhabitants. In this video, Ramon Roca, Guifi.net founder, explains how, since its foundation, the project has driven demand as well as rural development, becoming both a “local ecosystem” and a business model, and growing increasingly affordable as it expands. Driven by volunteers, Guifi.net focuses on building the infrastructure and cooperation between public administrations, local entrepreneurs and ISPs, among others.

Calais is the first Dutch broadband project funded by the Connecting Europe Broadband Fund (CEBF). The province of Groningen approached CEBF when they recognised their need for additional funding as well as a more strategic partner to reach the most remote areas. The resulting partnership will bring NGA access to over 100,000 inhabitants, combining fibre with a fixed wireless network for the hardest-to-reach areas. In this video, Jan Peter de Groot, Rodin Group CEO, explains that the pandemic made it very clear that people in all areas need to be able to “connect with the whole world”.

With 30% of EU farms being managed by women, these farmers are key in driving the digital transformation of rural areas. As explained by Lotta Folkesson, an arable farmer in northern Sweden, high-speed connectivity is needed to allow the use of cutting edge technology in both agriculture and forestry, as well for everyday management. On top of this, it enables entrepreneurship and allows remote area inhabitants to connect with the wider community. “With good infrastructure, we will have a stronger farming community as well as better conditions to attract more people to rural areas”.

Rede Aberta is the first Spanish broadband project to be funded by the Connecting Europe Broadband Fund (CEBF). To promote economic growth, stop depopulation and rejuvenate the population of rural Galicia, the open access network will bring 10 Gbps symmetrical fibre connectivity to 400,000 homes. In this video, Pere Antentas, Rede Aberta CEO, explains that the project will help the population take advantage of the area’s “enormous growth potential” and natural resources. It “will allow the telecommunication networks and services to be at the same level as the ones in the big cities of Europe”.

This brochure gives an overview of the WiFi4EU programme. It shows the magnitude of the Wi-Fi hot spots in the EU and the simplicity of the programme.

Commission decision of 15.1.2021 with regard to the annual financing decision, constituting the annual work programme for the implementation of the Union's policy in the field of Electronic Communications for year 2021, as set out in the Annex.

This report summarises the informal views expressed by participants on new drivers for network deployment, on persisting problems and proposed solutions and on permit-granting procedures.

This brochure gives the current state of play of connectivity in the EU and the vision for the digital decade.

Copernicus – the EU’s Earth Observation and Monitoring Programme – analyses our planet and its environment for the benefit of European citizens. Large volumes of data flow in from satelites, land and marine systems and provide important insights on weather modelling, climate change and more to both public and private entities, for free. To do this, Copernicus relies heavily on good connectivity, as described by Dr. Fernando Belda-Esplugues in this video.