Italian operators in broadband push
June 24, 2013
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Telecom Italia has launched its VDSL2 service based on Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology in 25 Italian cities.
Currently, the operator is offering a 30 Mbps connection from €40 per month in the following cities: Monza, Bologna, Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Milan, Rome, Turin, Varese, Venezia, Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Genoa, Florence, Pisa, Prato, Ancona, Bari, Taranto, Palermo, Brindisi and Catanzaro. The plan is to extend the service soon to Trieste, Treviso, Udine, Forlì, Pescara, Livorno, Perugia and Catania as well.
Overall, Telecom Italia already reaches 50 cities with its network, corresponding to 4 million families and is aiming to cover 61 cities by 2014 and 125 cities by 2015, amounting to 8 million households (35 per cent of the population).
In parallel, Milan has become the first city in which Telecom Italia is introducing the NGAN network using Fiber To The Home (FTTH) technology. The service, which allows for speeds of 100/10 Mbps, is initially available in 455.000 homes, which will become 564.000 by 2015. The subscription costs €49 per month for six months, after which the guaranteed price will be €59 per month.
Fastweb is covering the first six cities (Milan, Turin, Genoa, Bologna, Bari and Naples) with VSDL2 (20/10 Mbps) and will reach another 20 by 2014, for a total of 3 million homes. At the same time, the operator already reaches 2 million households via FTTH (100/10 Mbps) in the five above-mentioned cities plus Rome.
Vodafone Italia and Wind have launched fibre optic services in Milan, after signing agreements with network operator Metroweb. Vodafone has connected an estimated 40.000 homes to the FTTH network, with full coverage of the city planned for 2015, while Wind is also targetting another 30 cities for the service.