Renzi confirmed in a presentation made yesterday in Rome that a further four cities - Bari, Cagliari, Catania and Venice – will be in phase one. In the autumn, Florence, Genoa, Naples, Palermo and Padua will be added to the high-speed broadband network, with a further 40 locations also being lined up.
“The future has arrived,” Renzi said. He added that the first tenders to build a high-speed broadband network in less economically viable regions – labelled clusters C and D by the government - will be launched on 29 April.
Renzi said the government’s strategy is to go beyond the European digital objectives and through a wider €4.9 billion rollout plan, bring broadband speeds of 30Mbps to the entire country by 2020, with 50% of the population being able to receive 100Mbps.
“For the first time we have a strategic path,” said Renzi, adding that all pending rollouts would be unblocked and an initial €2.2 billion had been allocated to digital divide areas.
The news comes as it was reported Telecom Italia was rumoured to be weighing up job cuts of up to 30% as a result of Enel’s plans, confirmed yesterday, that it is to invest $2.5 billion to build and operate an ultra-broadband optical fibre infrastructure across Italy for businesses and homes.
