Now even villages and small towns will be able to surf at 1 Gigabit per second, just like in big cities. In fact, the marketing of fiber optic connectivity services on the network created by Open Fiber as part of the Ultra Broadband Plan launched by Infratel Italia, a company house of the MISE. All three public tenders for the construction and management of a fiber optic infrastructure in over 7000 Italian municipalities were awarded to Open Fiber.
Castel Giorgio is the first tested municipality of the white areas (less densely populated areas) in which citizens and businesses will be able to take advantage of the connectivity on the Open Fiber optical fiber infrastructure. In the coming days, as soon as the tests have been completed, the marketing of the services will gradually be available in a growing number of municipalities in the 17 Regions involved in the first two tenders. The marketing of the services had already been launched on an experimental basis by Open Fiber at the end of 2018 and is now active in 70 municipalities.
The opening was announced today in Castel Giorgio by the CEO of Open Fiber Elisabetta Ripa, by the President of the Umbria Region Fabio Paparelli, from Giorgio Maria Tosi Beleffi of the Cabinet Office of the Minister of Economic Development, by the Head of Institutional Relations of Infratel Italia Guido Citerni of Siena and by the first operators involved: Tiscali, Vodafone, Connesi, Unidata, Fibra City, Techno ADSL.
The fiber infrastructure created by Open Fiber will remain public property and will be managed under concession for 20 years by OF, which will also take care of its maintenance. The Open Fiber cabling plan in Umbria will involve 190 real estate units in 77 municipalities in the Region. The total investment is approximately 55 million.
"The marketing of fiber services in the white areas, which officially starts today in Castel Giorgio and is already being tested in 70 municipalities, will soon be extended to all wired municipalities, marking a fundamental step in the implementation of the largest infrastructure plan digital ever made in Italy” he commented Elisabetta Ripa, Chief Executive Officer of Open Fiber. “As Open Fiber we are proud to bring an ultra-fast and future-proof connection to over 7000 municipalities, to close the digital divide precisely in those areas where it is most felt”.
In the successful market areas (clusters A and B) of Umbria Open Fiber, with private investment, has already completed the infrastructuring of the city of Perugia (the first city in Italy to have been entirely wired by OF with FTTH infrastructure), is completing the cabling of Terni (where connectivity services are already available) and has started construction sites in Foligno.
Open Fiber is an operator wholesale only: does not sell fiber optic services directly to the final customer, but is active exclusively in the wholesale market, offering access to all interested market operators. Interested customers will only have to contact an operator, choose the tariff plan and navigate at a speed that is impossible to achieve with current copper or mixed fibre-copper networks.
