The department of energy and digital planning of Haute-Savoie County, France has secured EUR 72 million in loans from the European Investment Bank and France's Caisse des Depots to finance the construction of a county-owned fibre network. This is the first public sector network to be jointly financed by the EIB and the CdB, thanks to an agreement signed between the two lending institutions in June, and is the EIB's first loan to a public sector-owned broadband network.
Syane and the county council hope to invest an estimated EUR 131.5 million in the first phase of the very high speed network, some 1,300 km in length and intended to cover 255 municipalities in 5 years. This includes retail and industrial parks, 90 percent of businesses with over six employees, middle schools, high schools, higher education and research institutions, healthcare facilities, and about half of homes in the rural county. The network is due to connect 90 percent of homes in 15 years.
The loans are designed to complement a total of EUR 63.2 million raised for preliminary work by the National Fund for the Digital Society, the national Investing in the Future programme, the Rhone-Alpes Region, Haute-Savoie County, municipal authority network and Syane itself.
