Bulgaria ranks second in the European Union by a share of the municipalities covered by the free wireless internet in public places (WiFi4EU). Forty-three percent of the Bulgarian municipalities have won vouchers to build high-speed access to the World Wide Web in the first competition held in November 2018. Two hundred and fifteen Bulgarian municipalities have applied, with 113 of them receiving funding amounting to BGN 1 695 000. The first place in the competition is held by Ireland, where 105 municipalities have applied and funding has been 59.
Local administrations from the North-East region are the most successful in the competition - 49% of all municipalities have received vouchers amounting to EUR 15 000. Second is the Southwestern region - 46% of municipalities receive funding there. The third place in the competition is the North Central Region with 44% of municipalities that have been able to qualify for the initiative. In the South Central region vouchers receive 41% of the municipalities, and in the South-East region - 36%.
Ruse is the district with the largest number of municipalities that have won vouchers - free wireless internet will be installed in 75% of municipalities. In the district of Shumen, 70% of the municipalities are successfully involved in the initiative, while in the district of Pleven - 64% of the local authorities.
Fourteen of the district cities are among the first to install high-speed wireless internet networks in public places. The smallest one by population is Chavdar, and the largest is Plovdiv.
The Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications continues to assist the municipalities, which will participate in the next competitions up to 2020.