The EU supported Rural Broadband Rollout project was launched in 2020 and enables Serbia to expand the existing fibre backbone to 300,000 households and 1,500 schools/public institutions in 1,800 remote settlements in rural areas, without access to a broadband network.

The investments, to be implemented in two phases, will create new economic opportunities and skills for local populations in less developed regions through increased access to connectivity and training, as well as advance a competitiveness-focused policy engagement in the telecommunications sector.

Phase 1 of the project is progressing and has already expanded the broadband network in Serbia’s rural areas. In December 2022, works started to connect a local school in a village in Šumadija (Central Serbia), in the presence of the Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, and the Minister of Information and Telecommunications Mihajlo Jovanović, as well as the Ambassador of the EU to Serbia Emanuele Giaufret, and Matteo Colangeli, Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for the Western Balkans.

The investment is supported by a €34 million investment grant from the EU, a €118 million EBRD loan package, and a €1.7 million technical assistance grant by the WBIF bilateral donors.