According to the Bank’s website, the project concerns the roll-out of Very High Capacity Networks in the district of Carinthia (Austria) to connect 22k households in 40 municipalities in areas where private operators are not providing Very High Capacity Networks services due to lack of commercial interest. The Project focuses on rural and very remote areas.

The objective of the project is to provide the passive infrastructure to cover around 22 000 households (HHs) in 40 municipalities in areas where private operators are not providing Very High Capacity (VHC) services due to lack of commercial interest. The network will be deployed in a point-to-point Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) configuration and will be commercialised through operators in charge of providing the active service to the final retail operators. The passive infrastructure included in the project will allow for 3 such operators to provide active service on an open access basis to the retail operators.

Investments in fixed telecommunications projects (mainly civil works for fibre rollout) do not fall under the Annexes of the EIA Directive 2014/52/EU amending Directive 2011/92/EC. The related works have limited environmental effects, apart from disturbances during civil work construction, which can be mitigated by appropriate measures. Where and if applicable, the requirements of the environmental impact assessment Directive and the requirements of social standards will be verified during appraisal.

BIK Breitbandinitiative Kärnten GmbH is a company of the state of Carinthia responsible for the expansion of broadband networks in unserved and underserved areas. From its headquarters in Klagenfurt, it manages projects with and for Carinthian municipalities and in cooperation with network operators to ensure the supply of the population and businesses of the state of Carinthia with future-proof fiber-optic broadband networks.

No contacts available at the time of disclosure.

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