BoR (11) 06b BEREC report NGA Country Cases - IRG

- Current achievements, milestones reached.
BoR (11) 06b
In July 2009, the Portuguese Government launched a first of a series of Public Tenders in
order to create several NGAs in broad rural areas with the aim of promoting social and
territorial cohesion 30 . At the 6th of February 2010, the Minister for Communications
announced the award of the tenders for the installation, management, operation and
maintenance of NGAs in the Centre, North and Alentejo/Algarve zones of mainland
Portugal, with private and public investment, including State aid (State and EU funding) 31 .
(State aid) applications were notified to the European Commission in advance, under
existing Community funding programs and only after the full completion of this process it
will be possible to conclude whether we are or not, before a State aid.
30 See, for instance, http://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=332665.
31 This is an investment in total of 156.5 million euros, which will provide high speed access (at least
40 Mbps and up to 100 Mbps) electronic communications networks, covering more than one million
people (more than 10% of all population living in almost half of the total municipalities in the
Portuguese territory – in more remote and under served areas) and is expected to create 20,000
jobs.
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