CEF Digital drives broadband investment in Europe

Rita Wezenbeek, DG CNECT Director of Connectivity, highlights its particular support for 5G Communities, 5G along transport corridors, as well as Digital Global Gateways. Pearse O’Donohue, DG CNECT Director of Future Networks, notes the applications as well as environmental benefits of 5G corridors. He emphasises 5G’s importance in enabling broader innovation and new technologies.

Ms Wezenbeek further underlines how communities and public entities should be at the forefront of 5G deployment, bringing important innovations to communities’ health services and education, for example. She explains that Digital Global Gateways, achieved through submarine cables and satellite, will ensure that citizens even in remote areas will be reached with high-speed connectivity.

Find out more about how CEF Digital will support and catalyse both public and private investments in digital connectivity infrastructures between 2021 and 2027, through the Digital Strategy website.

This interview was filmed as part of the European Broadband Competence Offices (BCO) Network’s work to raise awareness of EU support for high-speed broadband deployment and share good practices in broadband projects. Discover more interviews in the BCO Network YouTube playlist and more broadband good practices, news and resources in the BCO Network Library.

Find out more

• Europe’s Digital Decade
• EU digital policy and strategy: Shaping Europe’s Digital Future
• The status of connectivity in your area: the European Broadband Mapping Portal