Wifi4EU

Funding for free Wi-Fi

A €15,000 grant will be given, from the EU, to 8,000 municipalities across Europe to provide Wi-Fi. Wifi4EU program (WiFi for EU) started this year (2018) with a budget of 120 million euros and will be completed in 2020. Update: Due to high demand the final budget went up to 135 million for a total of 9,000 municipalities!

The goal

The goal of the program is to further develop municipalities across Europe to ensure free WiFi connectivity for citizens and tourists in public places such as parks, squares, public buildings, libraries, health centers and museums.

Who can apply?

All municipalities/communities in Cyprus (and countries within EU) are eligible to participate. The program presents a great opportunity for the evolvement and modernization of municipalities throughout Cyprus, since the sum of €15,000 can virtually cover ALL equipment and installation costs for free Wi-Fi. The beneficiaries will be selected on a first-come, first-serve basis, while ensuring that all Member States can benefit from a minimum amount of vouchers

Procedure

1. Registration of municipality through the official website any time - Official WiFi4EU Portal
2. Application through the same website as soon as the call for applications is open formally - Official WiFi4EU Portal

CALLS

INITIAL CALL: 15/05/2018 (14:00 CY time) - Cancelled due to technical issues
CALL 1: 07/11/2018 (14:00 CY time) - 19 winners CYPRUS
CALL 2: 04/04/2019 (14:00 CY time) - 32 winners CYPRUS
CALL 3: 19/09/2019 (14:00 CY time) - 51 winners CYPRUS
CALL 4: 03/06/2020 (14:00 CY time) - 15 winners CYPRUS

Who we are

Our company, JoinMyWifi, an official partner of Bank of Cyprus, is a Cypriot company established in Jan 2015 and an approved entity from the EU to implement the program in the island. We undertake the responsibility for the purchase, installation, configuration and support of equipment in each municipality in Cyprus, with the guarantee that reliable WiFi will be provided in the desired spaces and that the amount of expenses will not exceed the €15,000 of the sponsorship. We are specialized in providing WiFi in Cyprus and abroad for the last 5 years and have won the EU innovation competition (2014-2020) for our smart WiFi services.

What extras we provide

• Presentation of municipality's news within the WiFi
• Redirecting the users to any webpage when connecting to the WiFi
• Collecting user information and activity
• Presentation of demographics, usage statistics and connectivity
• Portal configuration via web dashboard
• Prohibiting access to web pages or categories of sites such as erotic content etc.
• Fair allocation of bandwidth between users and advanced traffic control
• Network health monitoring
• Network protection against viruses and attacks

Got elected? What's next?

How to implement the program

1. We schedule a meeting where we sign an initial agreement and design the solution to cover the desired public areas.
2. We order all the necessary equipment (4 weeks).
3. We install and configure the system (2 weeks).
4. You test that the provided WiFi works properly and you authorize the payment via the EU portal (2 weeks). The money goes from the EU directly to the company's account. EU will initiate the transaction only if the installed equipment meets the minimum requirements of the program (the responsibility lies with the company).
5. For 3 years, we will provide free technical support and we will change any defective equipment.
6. When the EU will decide to proceed with the implementation of Stage 2 (the date has not been announced), the company will connect your network to the European network via Hotspot 2.0 as defined by the program specifications, at no extra cost.