Orange Poland and representatives of the municipality of Wolow have established the Lower-Silesian Fibre-Optics Union. Its mission is to support the construction of a broadband network and provide access to inhabitants of Lower Silesia, mainly to eliminate so-called ‘white-spot’ areas. Orange Poland is investing in broadband in eighteen Lower Silesian districts and 86 municipalities. The investment is co-financed by the Operational Programme Digital Poland (POPC).
The investments will make fibre-optics available to 60,000 households and over 400 schools in Lower Silesia by 2020. The initiative with Wolow municipal council assumes the participation of other municipalities from the Lower Silesian voivodeship.
The Lower-Silesian Fibre-Optics Union is the sixth fibre-optics union that Orange has now launched in cooperation with a local administration. In total, within the Lubusz, Pomeranian, Masovian, Lesser Poland and West Pomeranian Fibre-Optics Unions, 190 municipalities have joined the initiative.
Orange Poland has won co-financing through the second tender of the POPC programme for these projects, which will enable the construction of fibre-optic network for a total of 360,000 households. The total funding that the operator has assigned for the investment comprises PLN 289 million of its own resources and PLN 744 million from EU co-financing.
Orange Poland has now passed 3 million households across the country with fibre. In line with the strategic plan for the period 2016 – 2020, the operator plans to spend nearly PLN 4 billion to cover 5 million households.