Broadband in Europe: The Czech Republic lagging behind the rest of V4
Internet speed performance in Europe is continuously increasing, but many countries are still well below the 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) threshold that the European Union has set itself to achieve by the end of 2025, as shown by the data collected by the European Data Journalism Network.
A dashboard with the latest data on internet speed performance across Europe was prepared by OBC Transeuropa for the EDJNet.
Among Visegrad Four countries, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia exceed the 100 Mbps download target, while the Czech Republic, with 77,6 Mbps, remains below, despite having improved performance.
These figures are especially relevant in light of the European Union’s fixed connectivity goals. According to the Broadband Europe plan, access to a network of at least 100 Mbps (among other things) is expected in all European homes by 2025. The Commission’s next goal, laid out in its Digital Compass, is a secure, high-performance, sustainable digital infrastructure, and, among other objectives, connections of at least one gigabit per second (Gbps) for all by 2030.
To help member states achieve the objectives set by the Union in the field of connectivity, the EU, in particular within the cohesion policy, allocates several hundred million Euros in programmes that activate projects aimed at financing the development of digital infrastructures and the telecommunications sector.
During the 2014-2020 programming period of the EU cohesion policy, significant resources were allocated for ICT projects directly aimed at improving broadband connectivity: approximately 1,178 million Euros in Poland, 241 in Hungary, 103 in Czech Republic, and 17 in Slovakia. However, some countries, like the Czech Republic, spent only minimal amounts of their respective allocations.
