Broadband internet is used by 15 percent of the Slovak population, but up to 27 percent of the country’s 2,928 towns and villages are unable to connect to broadband internet, a significant shortcoming compared to other EU and OECD countries, said Ivan Istvanffy from the Government Office on Tuesday, May 12.
“We want to change this. We also have EU funds for it. It's €113 million that we want to use to connect 200,000 households,” said Istvanffy, who heads the Management and Implementation of Foreign Financial Aid Department at the Government Office, told the TASR newswire. He added that this represents 700,000 more people receiving the opportunity to connect to broadband internet.
The EU funds for this purpose must be used by 2015. Istvanffy said that it's necessary to create a system of financial stimuli in regions without broadband-internet connections, so that private businesses will become interested in these regions as well. The new network connections will be made up of optical cables in 70 percent of cases, with wireless internet for the remaining 30 percent in mountainous or less-accessible areas. There are large differences between individual regions in Slovakia when it comes to internet connections, with rural areas and Prešov Region falling behind the rest. Wireless internet connections, currently used by 4 percent of the population, are increasing in Slovakia, which is in 7th place in the EU in this respect, TASR was told by Vladimir Murín from the Connections Research Institute in Banská Bystrica. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
