Telecom Italia, Fastweb lead fibre growth in Italy
November 4, 2013
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Telecom Italia is the leading Italian operator in terms of fibre optic coverage, reaching 30 cities (which will increase to 33 in December), as well as 3 million homes covered with VDSL2.
By year’s end, a dozen cities will be completely covered with VDSL2, while in the others coverage will rise to almost 50 per cent. The plan is to reach 125 cities (8 million units) by 2015, accounting for 35 per cent of the population. Telecom Italia is currently offering VDSL2 with 30/3 Mbps connections, although the technology allows for higher speeds. The operator is investing €1.3 billion in the period 2013-2015 for both the fibre network and LTE.
For its part, Fastweb recently started offering 100 Mbps connections on its VDSL2 network in the seven cities covered. The number of cities should reach 14 by the end of 2013, with seven more to be added in 2014. Fastweb claims it is the first European operator to provide 100 Mbps over a VDSL2 network (FTTC).
Vodafone Italia is working on a proprietary fibre network, with pilot projects in Rome and Turin, while Wind is using the Metroweb network, currently active only in Milan.