“By creating access to broadband internet, telecommunications operators will be able to provide services to households more efficiently by connecting them to a common internet network. Schools, hospitals and other public institutions can make excellent use of ultra-fast internet. Ultra-fast internet network will allow to provide new services, as well as to reduce regional disparities and will promote the creation of various jobs,” said Agnė Vaiciukevičiūtė, Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications.
In 2021-2027, during the European Union (EU) funding period, it is planned to allocate about 74 million euros for the development of ultra-fast broadband network. These funds will be used to develop ultra-fast broadband network infrastructure through the construction of communication towers and fibre-optic cable lines. Ultra-fast broadband network will be available for 16,970 new households and 8,467 new businesses. It will be aimed to build a gigabit broadband network infrastructure for around 5,000 digitally sensitive objects.
It is planned to build 25 communication towers in 2022. The works will be carried out in the municipalities of Alytus, Joniškis, Jurbarkas, Kaišiadorys, Kaunas, Kazlų Rūda, Kelmė, Marijampolė, Molėtai, Panevėžys, Raseiniai, Rietavas, Šalčininkai, Šiauliai, Šilalė, Širvintos, Švenčionys, Tauragė, Ukmergė, Utena and Varėna districts.
According to the 2020 data of the European Commission, ultra-fast fixed broadband network (speeds of 100 Mb/s and higher) in rural areas of Lithuania has already covered about 23.3 % of households. Lithuania is the sixteenth among the EU countries in terms of this indicator. For comparison, in Latvia, about 74 % of households in rural areas are covered by ultra-fast fixed broadband, approx. 73 % in Denmark, 25 % in Poland, 20 % in Estonia, with the EU average being about 28 %.
The EU aims by 2025 to enable all European households (100 %) to have an internet connection with the speed of at least 100 Mbps, which can be increased to gigabit.
Last year, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, together with public sector institutions and communication operators, signed a memorandum in which all the parties agreed to achieve one of the goals – 100 Mbps connection speed in at least 95 % of Lithuanian households before 2025.