Memorandum of collaboration between Prysmian Group and the Cluj Metropolitan Area Intercommunity Development Association

In a more connected world, access to digital services is increasingly essential for any community. However, Romania counts 2,268 locations in rural areas with no broadband Internet access. This means that about 130,000 households are limited in terms of access to the digital world and the benefits the Internet brings to the community life.

The access to the digital world must be available to everyone and these locations need high-speed Internet, as well as digital services for their communities. The Smart Village project, proposed by Prysmian Group, is now being implemented in Petreștii de Jos, Cluj County, where — in collaboration with Cluj City Hall and 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. This type of network will connect the disadvantaged rural areas and will provide them with digital solutions, promoting innovation and sustainability. The inhabitants of the two villages without access to internet near Cluj-Napoca will have access to high-speed internet access through an innovative fibre optic communication solution provided by Prysmian . Prysmian implemented a complete solution including the state of the art Flextube cable solution manufactured in Slatina, new models of PBO distribution boxes developed in France and multioperator distribution cabinets. This is also in line with the Group’s Mission to provide our customers with superior cable solutions based on state-of-the-art technology and consistent excellence in execution, ultimately delivering sustainable growth and profit.

The advantages of connecting the two villages to the Internet through a fiber optic network are obvious. For rural residents services that for many people are normal — like digital television, public administration digital services and 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 may support the elderly population in rural areas with medical consultations and real-time supervision, while e-learning solutions will surely offer rural students the same opportunities as those offered in urban areas.

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.

Prysmian Group and the Cluj Metropolitan Area for Intercommunity Development Association have signed a memorandum of collaboration through which the Company becomes a strategic partner of the Cluj Rural/Urban Hub communities in the pilot project they will be implementing in the 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), the Cluj Metropolitan Area for Intercommunity Development Association and the C-edu Education Cluster to propose an action plan relevant and suitable for the local needs of the communities around Cluj, with a long-term sustainable impact, achieved through co-design and all within the 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 that are sustainable and adapted to the specific needs of the inhabitants of both the urban and rural areas, located in the immediate vicinity of large cities, through activities, projects and infrastructure investments to lay the necessary basis for a quality coexistence.