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Potsdam (dpa / bb) - With some delay, the last of 1200 public WiFi hotspots went online in Brandenburg.
At the police station in Seelow (Märkisch-Oderland), the telecommunications provider Vodafone installed the system, which enables free connections to the Internet, and put it into operation, as announced by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
"Public WiFi hotspots are an important part of digital infrastructure these days," said Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD).
The 1200 hotspots that have been installed in tourist centers as well as on municipal and state-owned properties across the country should actually be ready by the middle of last year.
But among other things, the corona pandemic hampered work.
The company put the first systems into operation at the end of April / beginning of May 2019.
By mid-October 2020, only 855 of the 1200 planned Internet points had been installed.
The state parliament decided in 2017 to set up the public broadcasting facilities.
Vodafone was awarded the contract in a Europe-wide tendering process.
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The state pays a total of around five million euros for the installation, operation and maintenance of the hotspots for five years from the commissioning of each individual system.
According to the ministry, it is still open how it will continue to be used afterwards.
According to Vodafone, the systems must then be dismantled - should the municipalities in Brandenburg not decide to take over the hotspots or to sign a new contract with the company.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210317-99-862921 / 2