EIB supports Estonian broadband with Eesti Energia

• €70 million loan from the EIB for investments into the roll-out of a passive fibre access network for broadband communications in Estonia.
• New network set to provide over a quarter of a million households with broadband internet, including nearly 50 000 households in areas with insufficient connectivity.

Eesti Energia has signed a new €70 million loan agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support financing the roll-out of a passive fibre access network in Estonia. The maximum tenor of the debt facility is 14 years, with an availability period of three years. The network will provide Very High Capacity (VHC) broadband services with download speeds of 1 Gbps to about 266 000 households.

47 000 of these households are located in areas with insufficient broadband connectivity (white areas) and about 219 000 in areas with limited broadband service offerings. The network will be offered on an open-access basis to any retail provider of broadband services. The new broadband network is currently being installed across Estonia and is expected to be finished by 2023.

Eesti Energia and the EIB share a long history of cooperation, and the EIB remains a lender of strategic importance to the Eesti Energia Group. This is the seventh loan agreement to be signed between Eesti Energia and EIB since 2004. Following the latest agreement signed back in December 2019 for €175 million, the EIB has provided the company with some €600 million in loans since 2004.

The EIB’s Vice President Thomas Östros commented: “Estonia has already made name for itself as a very digitalised country and we are happy to help push the boundaries of broadband internet access in the country even further. The EIB has an excellent and long-standing partnership with Eesti Energia and we are glad to be able to support them in this venture.”

Eesti Energia is a state-owned international energy company founded in 1939 that operates in the energy markets of the Baltic Sea countries, and also in the international liquid fuels market. Eesti Energia’s activities include operating the distribution grid, developing and operating renewable energy generation assets in the Baltic Sea area, offering energy solutions that include electricity, heat and fuel production, sales and customer service and other energy services.