Update 21/05/2017: The European Commission has confirmed it will roll-out free public Wi-Fi networks for 6,000-8,000 areas across the EU.
Andrus Ansip, the vice president of the Digital Single Market, said €120 million (£104m) would be put aside to pay for the WiFi4EU scheme. The programme is intended to give "every European village and every city with free wireless internet access around the main centres of public life by 2020".
Where the money is set to come from is still to be decided by European regulators but they say that when it is available, local public authorities will be able to apply for funding through a "simple and non-bureaucratic process".
"A grant allocated in the form of vouchers will be used to purchase and install state-of-the art equipment, such as local wireless access points, while the public authority will cover the running costs of the connection itself," officials say.
The plan was first announced in the State of the Union address in 2016.
Original story
The European Union plans to install free Wi-Fi in public spaces across the European Union within the next four years. The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, announced the plan in his annual State of the Union address. The European Commission is the decision-making branch of the European Union and has responsibility for proposing legislation and carrying out the day-to-day business of the EU.
Read more: What is 5G and when will it come to the UK? 5G networks explained
“We propose today to equip every European village and every city with free wireless internet access around the main centres of public life by 2020,” Juncker told the audience in Strasbourg, France.
“Digital technologies and digital communications are permeating every aspect of life. All they require is access to high-speed internet. We need to be connected. Our economy needs it. People need it.”
The EU’s commitment to high-speed internet continued with Juncker’s proposal to fully deploy 5G mobile networks across the European Union by 2025. “This has the potential to create a further two million jobs in the EU,” he said. Following the vote to leave the EU, it's unclear whether either 5G or free public Wi-Fi would be extended to the UK.
Regardless of the EU’s targets, European network providers are already racing to roll out the next generation of high-speed internet across the continent. At the beginning of September, Nokia revealed it will soon be launching 4.5G Pro, delivering ten times the speeds of conventional 4G networks.
Ericsson, meanwhile, has stated it intends to start delivering technology powering the first 5G networks as early as 2017. Telecom experts Ovum predict it’ll be a while before 5G becomes widespread, estimating there will only be 24 million 5G customers in the world by 2021. Currently, there are more than half a billion people using 4G across the globe.
Juncker also promised to deliver on the European Union’s previous promise to abolish data roaming charges in Europe. Back in 2015 the EU announced plans to scrap data roaming charges entirely by 2017, but it emerged earlier this month that the roaming charge-free entitlement would only apply for 90 days in a year. The EU responded to criticisms that this would penalise students studying abroad and pensioners taking long holidays by shelving those plans and promising to draw up new ones by next week.
“The draft [plan] was not technically wrong,” Juncker said, “but it missed the point of what was promised. And you will see a new, better draft as of next week. When you roam, it should be like at home.”
The president also used his speech to criticise Apple over its outstanding $13 billion (£11bn) tax bill. The European Commission ruled that the Irish government granted Apple undue tax benefits and asked the Irish government to retrieve the money from the company. The Irish government voted to fight against the European Commission’s ruling and now the Irish taoiseach (prime minister), Enda Kenny, will head to Luxembourg to fight the decision in European courts.
President Juncker said: “Every company, no matter how big or small, has to pay its taxes where it makes its profits. This goes for giants like Apple too, even if their market value is higher than the GDP of 165 countries in the world. In Europe we do not accept powerful companies getting illegal backroom deals on their taxes.”
This story has been updated to reflect the approval for the WiFi4EU funding
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
