Information Technology

The Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications and the project developer of the GIS-based Platform "Unified Information Point", ESRI Bulgaria, presented a test version of the project to the infrastructure managers and representatives of the administrations. The activities are funded by the Operational Program "Good Governance".

Work on the single access database for hundreds of thousands of kilometers of infrastructure is in phase testing platform and upcoming user training, said project manager Hristo Hristov.

Bulgaria ranks second in the European Union by a share of the municipalities covered by the free wireless internet in public places (WiFi4EU). Forty-three percent of the Bulgarian municipalities have won vouchers to build high-speed access to the World Wide Web in the first competition held in November 2018. Two hundred and fifteen Bulgarian municipalities have applied, with 113 of them receiving funding amounting to BGN 1 695 000. The first place in the competition is held by Ireland, where 105 municipalities have applied and funding has been 59.

A hundred and thirteen Bulgarian municipalities will be awarded grants by the European Commission for free high-speed WiFi access in public places under the WiFi4EU initiative. A total of 215 representatives of local authorities successfully applied for the competition announced in November. Winners from Bulgaria managed to apply in the first ten seconds following the launch of the competition competing with almost 13 000 participants. The grants were awarded on the first-come-first-served principle.

According to the European Commission 215 Bulgarian municipalities (81% of all 265 local administrations) have successfully applied for the free public wireless internet access initiative - WiFi4EU. Only 16 of the pre-registered 231 Bulgarian municipalities failed because of technical reasons.

Due to the termination of the first WiFi4EU competition in May,  now the budget is doubled – 42 million euros. In December 2018, the European Commission will announce the winners among the municipalities and present the vouchers.

Over 80 per cent of global data are based on geographic information, while the sector market is estimated at more than 400 billion USD annually, announced the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Rossen Jeliazkov, at the opening of the 20th International GIS Day.

There is no technological solution or industry that do not use geographic data, added the Minister. Their significance increases in state governance, administration, defense and security.

Within two years, Bulgarian legislation needs to be updated with the texts of the new European Code for Electronic Communications and I personally commit myself to this, said Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Rossen Jeliazkov. He participated in the Annual Conference of the Bulgarian Association of Cable and Communication Operators and took part in the discussion of the draft Code of Ethics for Consumer Telecommunication Services. Minister Jeliazkov stressed that the European Code is expected to be published in the EU Official Journal at the end of the year.

EUR 3.3 million can be awarded to the Bulgarian municipalities that apply for the European Commission WiFi4EU initiative for high quality internet in the centers of public life. The voucher portal will be open on November 7 (Wednesday) from 2 p.m. (GMT) to 6 p.m. on November 9 (Friday) 2018.

The budget of the competition is € 42,000,000, which will fund a total of 2800 municipalities in the European Union. Funding for each country can be up to 8% of total funding.

WiFi4EU competition, under the European Commission’s initiative for free public WiFi access, will be launched on Wednesday, November 7, 2018. Some 229 Bulgarian municipalities have already applied for participation. The day the competition is open representatives of the Bulgarian local authorities who have already applied, will only have to press the register button. The remaining 36 municipalities have enough time until November 7 to apply and participate in the competition.

Modern infrastructure is essential for providing logistics services, so both the government and businesses are working to develop an integrated, modern and sustainable transport system. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications Dimitar Genovsky before the participants in the Sixth Logistics Business Conference. "A good indicator of the success of our efforts is the growth in shipments of goods and people in recent years. In 2017, 136.7 million tonnes of freight and 748.5 million passengers were transported, "he added.

The WiFi4EU Free Wireless Internet Initiative Portal is already active and a European Commission funding competition is due to be launched. In this regard, the Ministry of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications (MTITC) has addressed the 227 Bulgarian municipalities registered so far to check their profiles and documents. The remaining 38 municipalities in Bulgaria can also register for the competition. The application deadline is expected to be short, probably within three days.

Information Services Jsc ended the first half of 2018 with revenues of BGN 9.8 million and profitability of 7%. The increase over the targets set in the business plan for 2018 is over 2 times for profit and 2% for revenue.

The company accounted for 6% higher labor efficiency (monthly work per employee) compared to the planned for the period.

The Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Maria Gabriel addressed the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Ivaylo Moskovski with gratitude and congratulations for the extremely important work done in the field of telecommunications, today during a joint press conference. The reason is the achievement of a preliminary political agreement on the Union's Electronic Communications Code. This topic was discussed at the afternoon session of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council in Luxemburg.

Publishing procurement data allows for better control when utilizing public resources and provided new business opportunities, stated the Deputy minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Dimitar Genovski, at the opening of the conference Superpowers of procurement data - Public procurement data for EU businesses and policies. The event took place in Brussels and was organized within the framework of the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU.

Submitting applications for project financing under the European Commission’s initiative for free public wifi WiFi4EU starts tomorrow, 15 May 2018, at 2 pm. Some 222 Bulgarian municipalities, which account for 84% of the total number, are expected to participate in the first competition under the initiative.

Bulgaria’s efforts towards the inclusion of the Western Balkans in EU digital policy are among the country’s contribution to encourage international cooperation. This was stated by the Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Dimitar Genovski at his meeting with the Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union Houlin Zhao. The talks were held within the framework of  the annual session of ITU Council in Geneva.

The European Commission has added new requirements to the required documents for municipalities to fund WiFi4EU public wireless internet projects. Full information is available on the website of the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications in the Questions and Answers section of the EIT and WiFi4EU.

A hundred Bulgarian IT experts underwent training on digital Internet names infrastructure security. The event was organized by the ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and is part of the agenda of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

The Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski, in a joint statement with the EC Vice-President Andrus Ansip, the Commissionaire for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel and members of the European Parliament, welcomed lifting of restrictions on the usage of digital content in the European Union.

Digital society security is a shared responsibility of governments, civil organizations and businesses. This was the message of 150 top cyber security experts at an international conference in Sofia. The Cybersecurity Challenges Conference was organized jointly by the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications and the State e-Government Agency as part of the official program of the first Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications and the State e-Government Agency organize an international conference "Cybersecurity Challeges" as part of the official program of the first Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.