Italian fibre ‘broadband everywhere’ project launching in May
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Italian fibre ‘broadband everywhere’ project launching in May

Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi has confirmed that phase one of the government’s “broadband everywhere” project will be rolled out in May with the first subscribers to be connected coming from Perugia.

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.





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