Submeasure 7.3 is divided into two activities: 

• a)  It is aimed at publicly owned infrastructure.
• b)  It concerns access to the broadband network through user terminals - wireless or satellite.

Participating

Support under Submeasure 7. 3 in line with activities A and B may be requested by: 

• Apulia Region for public infrastructural interventions (A). 

In particular, the request must be made for rural areas C and D, where there are no broadband services, are not widespread or have insufficient connection capacity. 

• companies and private entities for all other types of intervention (B). 

Especially in remote rural areas, where very low population density and difficult geomorphological conditions make investment in terrestrial broadband infrastructure economically unsustainable.

Objectives

Rural areas suffer from a lack of infrastructure related to the provision of broadband connectivity. 
Submeasure 7. 3 is intended to help overcome the digital divide by increasing the spread and strengthening of broadband, which will also help to make businesses in rural areas more competitive. 

In particular, submeasure allows you to: 

• create and enable broadband access (including return network infrastructures and ground facilities); 
• upgrade existing broadband infrastructures; 
• develop ultra broadband services at a minimum of 30 Mbps and a minimum of 100 Mbps. 

Selection principles

The assessment of Submeasure 7.3 - Action A shall be broken down into macro-criteria, a minimum permissible score of 40 points and a maximum permissible score of up to 100 points, as defined for:

• territorial scopes, with a maximum score of 70 points and in turn differentiated as follows:
  • active population (max 36 points);
  • competitiveness index of the municipal territory (max 24 points);
  • average income of the population (max 10 points);
• type of operations activated, with a maximum score of 30 points for investment efficiency.

In this case, the beneficiaries do not expect any relevance in the attribution of the score. On an equal footing, priority will be given to Applications for Support that require a lower total investment cost.

For submeasure 7.3 - Action B only the efficiency of the investment within the type of operations activated is relevant, for a minimum eligible score of 30 points and a maximum of 100.

Eligible expenditure

Activity A bears the costs of: 

• civil works, installation of network elements, associated services and associated resources; 
• the establishment of a return network infrastructure, software systems and technical equipment; 
• the construction of new infrastructure and adaptation of existing broadband infrastructure including return network equipment; 
• software systems and technical equipment; 
• overheads. 

Activity B bears the costs of: 

• modems, satellite dishes and other wireless technologies for broadband connection. 

Methods of disbursement of financing

The support provided for Submeasure 7. 3 is at a rate of 100%.