Luxembourg presents digitalisation strategy, no household left behind

The strategy wants to target people deprived of high-speed access to the Internet and to set up the country as a digital hub of tomorrow

On 5 October, Luxembourgish Prime Minister Xavier Bettel announced the country’s new digitalisation strategy ‘Connecting Tomorrow’, during a telecommunications conference, called LuxExpo. The main theme of the conference was connectivity and the Prime Minister took advantage of the gathering of experts to present the main points of the new strategy.

The future is running on high-speed broadband

With the new ultra-broadband strategy, the government is giving itself the means to implement measures to support the connectivity of the most disadvantaged. At the same time, the strategy creates momentum to grow and better the existing digital ecosystem in Luxembourg.

Here are the main points of the digitalisation programme:

• Makе connectivity accessible for all;
• Accelerate the incorporation of more efficient and sustainable technologies by households and businesses;
• Accelerate the deployment of scalable digital infrastructures;
• Develop Luxembourg as the first-choice platform for digital and computer services in the future.

Prime Minister for all

Xavier Bettel presented the heart of the ultra-high-speed connection strategy: connecting households without access to a high-speed or even very high-speed Internet infrastructure until the year 2025. While the Grand Duchy has relatively deep internet penetration, there are still some notable exceptions, such as households without access to high-speed internet.

According to Prime Minister Bettel, the county needs to compensate for this lack and provide the necessary funds. He highlighted some of the motives behind the digitalisation strategy, by pointing out that in his role, he is responsible for both the people who are connected to the Internet and for those who are not.

He continued, by pointing out that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the connectivity divide, while also showcasing the power of the Internet to connect people. He rounded out his speech restating the web’s role as a resource, rather than a commodity or a service.