It cost over €9 million and it is currently “without an owner and at risk of being lost altogether”. What are we talking about? It is the region’s civic fibre optic broadband, set up under the Algarve Digital project of the fated Globalgarve initiative.
Globalgarve has filed for bankruptcy, and thus the “incredibly valuable” broadband system, described as “the jewel in the crown of Algarve Digital”, could vanish into the ether.
The faint strings keeping it afloat lie in a deal with the business running it, Algardata.
“As long as town councils go on paying (their contributions to the service), it will not be cut,” business association president Vítor Guerreiro told a hastily convened press conference last Friday.
But “therein lies the rub”. It is largely due to councils not paying their way that led to Globalgarve’s downfall in the first place.
Thus the future is not bright. Guerreiro and his partners in the battle to save the service say it may be compromised by the liquidation of Globalgarve, and that alternatives will cost councils “three or four times more”.
Heading the press conference alongside the president of CEAL (confederation of Algarve businesspeople) Carlos Luís, and local businessman João Correia, Guerreiro said: “I am making an appeal to all the public decision-making bodies to not let this service fall.”
