The government of Slovakia wants to extend the country’s broadband Internet infrastructure to small villages and communities. In a video speech on 27 June, Deputy Prime Minister for Digitisation Peter Pellegrini said that it is the state’s responsibility to connect the country’s remote areas.

The country is about to start the construction of broadband infrastructure, and is organising a public consultation to determine which regions and municipalities should be connected first, the Deputy Prime Minister’s office explains in a statement.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, companies are not in a hurry to bring broadband connections to remote areas, because the costs outweigh the potential profits. At a time when a continuous Internet connection is becoming essential, we should cover all areas, like we do with highways and railways, the agency quotes the Deputy Prime Minister as saying. To extend the infrastructure to reach even remote areas, the country will be financially supported by the European Union.

More information:

Video speech by Deputy Prime Minister for Digitisation Peter Pellegrini (in Slovak)
Announcement by the Deputy Prime Minister’s office (in Slovak)