Open Fiber completed the ultra broadband plan in Sicily, which thus becomes the first region in Southern Italy and among the first in Italy to complete the infrastructure project of the white areas. The announcement came on the morning of July 7, in the “Piersanti Mattarella” room of Palazzo dei Normanni, in Palermo, where the press conference was held to announce the conclusion of the Bul plan. Present at the event were the regional councilor for the Economy Alessandro Dagnino, the CEO of Open Fiber Giuseppe Gola, the head of the Southern Area of Open Fiber Emanuele Briulotta and the CEO of Infratel Italia Pietro Piccinetti.
Open Fiber: 239 million invested in Sicily
The Ultra Broadband Plan on the island as a whole has affected 300 Municipalities for an investment of 239 million euros.
The new ultra-broadband infrastructure is extended to 4.500 kilometers, enabling Ftth connectivity for approximately 380 thousand real estate units and approximately 261 thousand with Fwa technology (the mixed fiber-wireless connection), approximately 2300 public administration offices (schools, hospitals, health facilities, municipal offices, libraries, law enforcement agencies).
“Thanks to the new fiber optic infrastructure, capable of offering speed up to 10 Gigabits per second, important opportunities open up for citizens, businesses and local administrations: from telemedicine to remote working, from territorial control to the intelligent management of urban services. Open Fiber's Ftth (Fiber To The Home) technology also guarantees a reduced environmental impact, with energy consumption 60% lower than copper networks, and a concrete contribution to social and economic sustainability", explains the company in a statement.
For Giuseppe Gola, CEO of Open Fiber, “with the closure of the Bul plan in Sicily, Open Fiber reaches a strategic milestone in one of the most significant regions of the South that has always shown a strong focus on technological innovation. This Plan was conceived to guarantee even the citizens of small towns a connection that is up to the standard of that available in large urban centers, and today we can proudly say that we have built a cutting-edge digital infrastructure in Sicily. It is now essential to encourage the adoption of the FTTH network to improve the lives of citizens, strengthen local businesses and combat the depopulation of internal areas”.
Open Fiber: 928 thousand real estate units connected in Sicily
In addition to the small villages and municipalities in the internal areas involved in the BUL Plan, Open Fiber is present with its Ftth network in the Metropolitan Cities of Palermo, Catania and Messina and in 13 other large and medium-sized Sicilian cities with a private investment of 350 million of euros and a total of 928 thousand connected real estate units with almost 250 thousand active customers. In Sicily, moreover, Open Fiber is continuing the works foreseen by the 'Italy at 1 Giga' plan, co-financed at 30% by the telecommunications company that has already invested 100 million euros to bring fiber optic connectivity to 312 municipalities in the nine provinces: this intervention, to date, has allowed 122 thousand civics to be covered with Ftth technology and another 9 thousand with the FWA network.
