12 July 2020
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
I – like most people – have unlimited 3g/4G on my phone so I will never understand the need for free Wifi! even if I travel to the EU my free data comes with me, but it seems that people love – nevertheless – love free Wifi so there was good news in recent days…
Cork City is one of the winning municipalities as part of a new round of funding which makes available free Wifi hotspots in public spaces in Ireland.
The EU has made €120m available for local authorities as part of the Wifi4EU scheme. As part of the scheme local authorities can apply for vouchers worth €15,000 to provide free public wi-fi in town centres, parks, libraries and museums.
The call for applications opened last month and it has now been announced that Cork City is one of the winners along with other locations in Ireland and across Europe. Overall 947 municipalities across the EU won a voucher in this round. The voucher is worth €15,000. The Commission received over 8,600 applications from all participating countries.
Deirdre Clune MEP Pic Diane Cusack
Ireland South MEP Deirdre Clune said: “€120 million has been made available for up to 8,000 municipalities across the EU by 2020. I am delighted that Cork City is one of the winners in this round of funding. This is another great initiative from the EU which aims to improve access to the internet for citizens.”
With the voucher, the municipality will be able to set up a Wi-Fi hotspot in public spaces, including town halls, public libraries, museums, public parks or squares. Each EU Member State is being guaranteed to receive at least 15 vouchers. WiFi4EU-funded networks will be free of charge, free of advertising and free of personal data harvesting. Funding will be provided for networks that do not duplicate existing free private or public offers of a similar quality.
For more details see https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/winners-fourth-wifi4eu-call-announced
