Slovenian mobile telephony operator Si.mobil has extended its LTE network to the Ljutomer area, covering the first of at least 225 rural sites without broadband Internet, known as white spots, Telecompaper.com reports quoting Delo.

Slovenia was awarded 148 million euro ($201 million) by the EU to deploy LTE technology under the framework of the Digital Agenda, and Si.mobil won the tender, with provisions for the coverage of rural areas.

Presenting the network in Ljutomer, the director of the Agency for Electronic Communications Networks and Services, Franc Dolenc, said that Si.mobil committed itself to cover 95 percent of households with a service at 10 Mbps by mid-2017.

Si.mobil needs to choose 225 from a list of 300 villages in which it will provide local coverage and a surrogate for a fixed connection to a population estimated at around 120,000.