On April 2, the Government approved amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers Regulations on the Development Plan for the Electronic Communications Sector 2021-2027. These amendments, prepared by the Ministry of Transport (MoT), aim to ensure the implementation of the broadband or "last mile" infrastructure development reform under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
The amendments to the Development Plan for the Electronic Communications Sector 2021-2027 are necessary to ensure consistency between the last mile infrastructure development model outlined in this Plan and the implementation of the RRF investment "Development of broadband or last mile high-performance network infrastructure."
The current "last mile" model for the development of electronic communications network infrastructure, as outlined in the Development Plan for the Electronic Communications Sector 2021-2027, has different requirements compared to the conditions for the implementation of the reform under the RFF. This discrepancy may cause uncertainties during utilization of the RRF investments. Therefore, the Plan outlines changes to the course of action to achieve its objectives. Specifically, the requirement for upload speeds will be removed in the "last mile" model for deploying electronic communications network infrastructure, ensuring equal requirements and promoting competition among the implementers of the reform.
It has already been announced that EUR 16.5 million of investment is available from the RRF for the development of "last mile" infrastructure for broadband or very high-performance networks. Under the RRF programme developed by the MoT, electronic communications merchants with the right to provide electronic communications services and networks in Latvia are eligible for funding. The investment aims to develop an electronic communications infrastructure capable of providing internet services with data transmission speed of at least 300 megabits per second to households, businesses, educational and medical institutions, as well as public buildings throughout the country.
