Advanced Television

Italy: Blanket 30 Mbps coverage by 2020

April 8, 2016

From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Italy plans to cover 100 per cent the territory with 30 Mbps connections by 2020, while the goal is to arrive to 50 per cent of subscribers with speeds of 100 Mbps.

These are the main goals of the National Broadband Plan, presented in Rome by Italy’s Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, and the CEO of state-owned energy utility Enel, Francesco Starace.
The Italian government has earmarked €4.9 billion of state resources, of which €3.5 billion have already been allocated, with €2.2 billion going to so-called “white areas” where there is no market interest by operators.

The announcement comes days after Enel said it will invest €2.5 billion to cover 7.5 million homes in 224 cities over three years with FTTH technology, in cooperation with the private sector.

An ad hoc company, Enel Open Fiber, was set up last December and tentative agreements have already been signed with telecom operators Vodafone and Wind.

The project will be initially deployed in Perugia, Bari, Venice, Catania and Cagliari, with another five to be connected in the autumn – Florence, Genoa, Naples, Palermo and Padua
Starace said that Enel is “open to all solutions with all operators”, adding that they are in talks with Metroweb and that it would be “fantastic” if Telecom Italia were to join.

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