The European Commission will contribute €865 million to the development of fibre and 5G networks, among other things, over the next three years and is ready to call for proposals to spend its cash.
The pledge forms part of the Commission's ongoing CEF Digital programme whose overarching aim is to support and catalyse investment – public and private – in digital connectivity infrastructures of common European interest.
Top of the list for funding are networks, which comes as no surprise given the Commission's 2030 target of basically giving everyone in Europe 5G and gigabit network coverage by the end of the decade.
Specifically, the Commission is looking to co-fund large-scale projects that will push the rollout of gigabit and standalone 5G networks, as well as the integration of edge cloud and computing capabilities in verticals such as health, manufacturing, transport, and logistics.
Backbone networks get a look in too; the Commission is talking new deployments and significant upgrades, looking at submarine cables as well as quantum computing. The third strand of the programme covers the rollout of what the Commission terms operational digital platforms for transport or energy infrastructures.
