Our impact
Netcity’s activities include designing, building and operating the duct network for the entire Bucharest area, thus improving the visual appearance of the city and safety through the migration of the aerial cable networks underground.
This project aims to contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, more particularly :
Background
Following the liberalization of the Romanian economy, telecommunications operators expanded rapidly by rolling out aerial fibre optics spanning from buildings to electric posts, to lamp posts across Bucharest. The result was a significant fiber coverage but at the cost if a fire hazard, interference with transportation networks, and visually very unappealing. To reduce the incidence of these aerial cables and improve the cityscape, the city of Bucharest awarded in 2008 a 49-year concession agreement, granting an exclusivity to build a network of underground ducts.
As a part of this concession, the concessionaire, Netcity (owned by E-Infra), has built a network of 1,725 km of underground ducts in Bucharest, which can be increased up to 5,500km to cover the entirety of the city.
In December 2021, Meridiam acquired a 49% stake in Netcity with an additional 31% stake option.
Meridiam’s investment in the project, in partnership with E-Infra will enable the Project Company to accelerate the construction which at the time of acquisition stood at less than 40% completion and realise the original critical objectives of the project.
Stage > Under construction
Learn more from the press release
Photo source : Depositphotos_207345772_XL @Shuterstock
of ducting to improve the connectivity
of additional underground ducts throughout the city
Completion date
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