The Croatian initiative to bring faster internet to its residents
Providing access to the internet is one of the new priorities for the European Commission which recently approved the project to provide free Wi-Fi in 8.000 European cities and towns.
The Croatian broadband plan aims at bringing faster internet to consumers and businesses that currently can not access it. Also, Commissioner Margrethe Vestager declared that “it will help Croatia to put in place the necessary infrastructure for an information society and contribute to creating a Digital Single Market within the EU”. Indeed, it is not the first time that the difficulty in accessing the internet for a population is considered as one source of inequality. Many services offered by companies, local and state governments have been digitalized: internet banking, online registrations, job searches, travel purchases, apartment rentals, online purchases, online learning, to name a few.
Croatian broadband’s strategy is to invest in two types of area: where there is no backhaul infrastructure at all, and where the infrastructure is not sufficient to reach the population broadband needs. Theses areas are evidenced as market failure areas.
More and more cities are starting what we could name as a “smart transition”, trying as connected as possible with their residents to enhance services and citizens engagement.
This can be done by providing free Wi-Fi in public spaces such as libraries, parks, squares, shopping streets but also through intelligent technology such as the CIVIQ Smartscapes (interactive digital waypoints).
Tanaza Partners like Tacira technologies actively participates to this smart transition by helping municipalities to optimise services such as street lighting and garbage collection.
With this new European project to provide free Wi-Fi over 8.000 European cities, opportunities are a lot for MSPs and Wi-Fi professionals. Wi-Fi market is growing, and many sectors are asking for Wi-Fi infrastructure and technology to improve their customer’s services and engagement.
For more information about how to deploy a Wi-Fi network in a public space, you can download our case study for free!