The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Jazz Telecom SA (Jazztel) signed yesterday, 3 April, in Madrid a EUR 150 million loan agreement for financing the company’s fibre-to-the-home network.
This project will consist of rolling out a fibre optic network from the backbone infrastructure to three million homes. The loan will also finance the expansion of the network and IT systems to cover all of Spain’s major cities, including Madrid and Barcelona.
The project will help to improve access to broadband services in Spain and increase competition in the telecoms sector. These are priority objectives of the EIB under the “Digital Agenda for Europe” and “Europa 2020” initiatives to develop and expand next generation network infrastructure – key to providing the people of Europe with access to high speed broadband services. The project fits into the EIB’s strategy of financing technological development and IT investment designed to boost Europe’s economic competitiveness.
This is the EIB’s first operation with Jazztel. The investments financed by this loan will be located in Spain, with 25% in convergence regions.
Over the course of 2013, the EIB Group provided finance totalling EUR 71 700 million, mainly in the EU. In Spain, its lending reached a record EUR 10 656 million, making that country the biggest recipient of EIB funds for the tenth year running.