Italy charts fibre progress and reveals 2019 plans

Created March 21, 2019
News and Business

Italian wholesale fibre supplier Open Fiber has reported on progress in its ultra wideband roll-out, and unveiled its plans for 2019 at an event in Rome. The event was attended by the national Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) and state-owned infrastructure agency Infratel Italia SpA.

Open Fiber said that by the end of February 2019 1,000 FTTH installations (along with 310 Fixed Wireless Access (FWAs)) had been achieved in ‘white areas’ of the country (also known as ‘market failure areas’ or ‘digital divide locations’).

Starting in mid-2107 Open Fiber has won Infratel contracts worth over €2.6 billion to bring ultra wideband connectivity to 7,635 localities in all 20 Italian regions. During the course of 2019 Open Fiber aims to open construction sites in an additional 2,000 Italian municipalities and to complete the work in about 850 of these.

Marco Bellezza, Legal Advisor to Minister Luigi Di Maio, speaking at the meeting, said: “The creation of digital highways is one of the strategic priorities of MISE. With the simplification of procedures requested by Minister Luigi Di Maio, we have also set the conditions for a more rapid implementation of the actions of the BUL (Banda Ultra Larga) Plan “.

“The company has achieved and exceeded the objectives set for the year 2018. We still have a lot of work to do to complete the entire plan,” commented Elisabetta Ripa, Open Fiber CEO (pictured). “With the collaboration of all the stakeholders we will be able to complete this great work on schedule and make the benefits of a future-proof communication network accessible to the communities “.

Domenico Tudini, Amministratore Delegato, Infratel, added: “The BUL Great Project is one of the most ambitious and important infrastructure projects that the country is extremely in need of. The aim is to spread a modern fibre-optic infrastructure and wireless technology in areas of market failure. The main objective of 2019 is to add, to the 1000 sites opened in 2018, another 2,000 construction sites, as well as to test more than 500 to be started for the activation of services to citizens “.

For more information, visit https://openfiber.it/en

italy-charts-fibre-progress-and-reveals-2019-plans

This article was written
by John Williamson

John Williamson is a freelance telecommunications, IT and military communications journalist. He has also written for national and international media, and been a telecoms advisor to the World Bank.

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