By the end of 2020, no municipality should remain in Slovakia, which would not be covered by Internet with a minimum speed of 30 Mbit/s. This was announced by the heads of the four largest mobile operators operating in Slovakia at today’s meeting with Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini and Deputy Prime Minister for Investments and Informatization Richard Raši. In February 2018, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for Investments and Informatization (ODPMII) signed memoranda on providing coverage of municipalities with 30 Mbit/s internet connection, which the operators have been completing continuously, as confirmed by the heads of operators personally.
According to the data collected by ODPMII from the operators, there are still several dozens of the so-called white areas, i.e. municipalities where at least half of the territory is not yet covered by broadband internet.
“We already know that after fulfilling the operators’ commitment Slovakia will show a significant progress in the evaluation of its connectivity in international rankings, such as the DESI Index,” said Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini. He added that we already have coverage of 80 percent of addresses, i.e. all residential and non-residential premises, including holiday homes, and this number will rise to 90 percent within two years.
“Slovakia is also doing very well in household coverage, as only about three percent of them will soon be left without an internet connection. We have already fulfilled our commitment from the Digital Agenda for Europe strategy, where we have committed ourselves that by 2020 at least half of Slovak households will have access to the internet with a minimum speed of 100 Mbit/s,” said Deputy Prime Minister Richard Raši.
In a discussion with Prime Minister Pellegrini, Deputy Prime Minister Raši, and head of the Office for Regulation of Electronic Communications and Postal Services Vladimír Kešjar, operators agreed that national investment priorities in digital infrastructure development must be based on a consensus between the state and private operators. The ODPMII is currently finalizing the draft of the National Broadband Plan, which aims to identify the so-called “investment gap” in building high-speed internet in Slovakia. At the same time, the Transport Department is finalizing the 5G Strategy, both of which are expected to be submitted to the Cabinet session for its approval in 2020. These are also key documents for assessing the relevance and amount of investment in ultra-fast broadband internet and the development of electronic communication networks in the subsequent programming period 2021-2027.
