Dutch fibre-to-the-home (FttH) network operator Reggefiber is set to receive €250m from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and six commercial banks to support the rollout of its optical fibre network to an extra 50 domestic municipalities.
The EIB…
Dutch fibre-to-the-home (FttH) network operator Reggefiber is set to receive €250m from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and six commercial banks to support the rollout of its optical fibre network to an extra 50 domestic municipalities.
The EIB will provide half that amount as a 10-year project-financing facility, while the six commercial banks – ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, ING, Rabobank and RBS – will lend the rest, the EIB said in a statement.
Specifically, the EIB loan will be used to build a dedicated, ultra-high-speed FttH network capable of upload and download speeds of up to 1Gb per second, according to the statement. The rollout is expected to be completed by 2015 and the network will be open to all operators, allowing customers to sign up for services with different providers.
EIB vice president for the Netherlands, Pim van Ballekom, said the bank is pleased to support the company’s efforts to increase coverage of high-speed broadband access nationwide and, in doing so, contribute to the European Commission’s (EC’s) Digital Agenda. With the new network, Reggefiber will be able to service more than a million households, he noted. The company currently services about 300,000 homes.
EC vice president and Digital Agenda commissioner, Neelie Kroes, lent the EIB agreement her support, saying such loans “play a vital role in helping Europe become a more connected, competitive continent”.
“My hope is to support more projects like this using the proposed Connecting Europe Facility,” she added.
The project marks one of the first large-scale rollouts of FttH networks by a European company, according to the statement.
The EIB also helped Reggefiber to finance its initial rollout to 33 Dutch municipalities, providing €142.5m of a €285m facility in 2010. In 2011, the bank has invested about €4bn in ultra-fast internet infrastructure within the European Union.
