Federal Broadband Funding 2015-2018. Results of the Second Interim Evaluation of the Broadband Austria 2020 Program

A total budget volume of 980 million € ("broadband billion") was available for Broadband Austria 2020. Of the 683 million € in funding budgeted for the 2015-2018 period, slightly more than two-thirds had actually been drawn down by the end of 2018. By far the most funds were allocated to the Access funding program (265 million €), and significantly less to the Backhaul (89 million €), Empty Pipe (87 million €) and Access-ELER programs (25 million €). The subsidies are expected to have triggered investments of 618 million €. The significantly lower than planned take-up rate is due to the delayed start of the programmes and the incomplete utilisation of the advertised funding. A joint effort by private companies and the public sector is necessary for the nationwide broadband supply via fibre optics, which is not an alternative in terms of economic policy.