Infratel, Italy’s state-owned infrastructure agency, has initiated a public consultation to review the mapping of addresses for the ‘Italia a 1 Giga’ project. The initiative’s primary objective is to guarantee that all residential and business units across Italy have access to fixed-line internet speeds of at least one Gbit/s by 2026, well ahead of the European Union’s 2030 target.
The plan seeks to bridge the digital divide and foster social inclusion by bringing high-speed connectivity to underserved and rural areas where private investments are limited due to lower profitability.
The consultation follows the discovery of errors in the original database used for the project tender. That tender saw wholesale operators, Open Fiber and Telecom Italia (TIM), awarded EUR 3.4 billion in funding to bring broadband infrastructure to around 7 million addresses in gray areas—regions where no other operator plans to deploy a Next Generation Access (NGA) network.
Also Read: TIM Partners with Oracle to Propel Cloud Adoption in Italy
Connection Requirements by Area
Open Fiber is slated to deliver gigabit connections to homes, offices, and public buildings in Puglia, Tuscany, Lazio, Sicily, Emilia-Romagna, Campania, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, and Lombardy.
Meanwhile, TIM is slated to cover grey areas in Sardinia, Abruzzo, Molise, Marche, Umbria, Southern and Northern Calabria, Basilicata, Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta, and Liguria.
Under the terms of the tender, the companies are expected to complete connections to these areas by 30 June 2026. The funds cover up to 70% of the project costs, with TIM (now operating as FiberCop) and Open Fiber contributing approximately EUR 1.5 billion of their resources.
Infratel revealed that field inspections had uncovered street numbers missing from the original mapping despite being carried out according to the European Commission‘s guidelines on state aid for broadband networks. The current consultation seeks to determine if these “adjacent street numbers” should be included under the awarded funds or addressed by private operators.
Stakeholders have until 7 October 2024 to submit relevant data.
Continue Reading:
