The inhabitants of two villages near Cluj-Napoca will have high-speed internet access through an innovative fiber optic communication solution.

In a more connected world, access to digital services is increasingly needed for any community. At the same time, in Romania are identified 2268 localities in rural areas that are deprived of access to broadband internet. This represents about 130,000 households that are limited in terms of access to the digital world and the benefits the internet brings to the lives of communities. 

The access to the digital world must be available to everyone and these localities need high speed internet, but also digital services for their community. The Smart Village project, proposed by Prysmian Group, is now taking place in Petreștii de Jos, Cluj County, where in collaboration with Cluj City Hall, in support of the Rural/Urban Hub strategy, a fiber optic network is being installed that will connect the villages Plaiuri and Livada to the Internet. These types of networks will connect the disadvantaged rural areas and will provide digital solutions for them, promoting innovation and sustainability.

The advantages of connecting Plaiuri and Livada villages to the internet through a fiber optic network are obvious. What for many people seems to be normal things, for rural residents’ services like digital television, digital services for local authorities, access to European funds, the development of service companies and technology hubs away from big crowded cities are more difficult to access. Technology and fast internet access can thus bring solutions for agriculture, but also for the promotion of tourism at the local level. E-health services that support the elderly population in rural areas with medical consultations and real-time supervision, nor the e-learning solutions that will offer rural students the same opportunities as those in urban areas can’t be neglected.

As a result of the implementation of this project, public institutions (town halls, schools, etc.) and approximately 400 households in rural areas can have access to high-speed Internet and digital services.

Signing the memorandum with ADIZMC
Prysmian Group and the Cluj Metropolitan Area for Intercommunity Development Association (ADIZMC) have signed a memorandum of collaboration through which the company becomes a strategic partner of the communities in Cluj Rural/Urban Hub in the pilot project they are implementing in the next coming years.

Cluj Rural/Urban Hub is a “bottom-up” initiative of the three local administrations (Cluj-Napoca, Ciurila and Petreștii de Jos town halls), ADIZMC and the C-edu Education Cluster to propose an action plan relevant and adapted to the local needs of the communities around Cluj, with a long-term sustainable impact, achieved through co-design and all within framework of the European Commission's Rural Action Plan.

The principle on which the concept of rural / urban hub is based is to create ethical mechanisms, sustainable and adapted to the specific needs of the inhabitants of the urban area and those of the rural areas, located in the immediate vicinity of large cities, in activities, projects and infrastructure investments to create the necessary basis for quality coexistence. 

The Prysmian Group was legally assisted in the implementation of this project by the international law firm Tonucci & Partners with the team of lawyers Pasquale Silvestro (partner) and Maria Sopt (senior partner).