North of Drenthe gets fiber optic with subsidy and loan

Fiber will still be installed in the north of Drenthe. Initially no money seemed available for this, but the municipalities of Noordenveld and Tynaarlo jointly make money available in the form of loans and subsidies.

That money will go to the Fiberglass Noord cooperative, or CGN, the Dagblad van het Noorden reports. A new network will soon be established in the villages of Altena, Alteveer, Donderen, Nieuw-roden, Roderesch, Steenbergen, Veenhuizen and Zeijen. The connection costs per household are high there because of the low building density. Also, relatively few residents in the area seem to be interested in fiber optics; only half of the inhabitants had signed up for a subscription. That is why subsidies are needed to still cover the entire area.

A total of 1.468 million euros will be made available for the project. This is divided into grants and loans. The municipality of Noordenveld is making a grant of four tons and a loan of 420,000 euros available. For Tynaarlo it concerns 390,000 and 285,000 euros respectively. The loans must be repaid by the CGN in twenty years. It is striking that the subsidy must also be repaid if ‘the financial situation of the cooperative becomes excessively positive’, if the loan has been repaid or if the company is sold in the interim.

If all goes well, CGN will start construction at the end of next year. The city councils still have to agree to the proposals, and the province has yet to provide collateral for the loans.