The optical fiber defies the earthquake. And it is no coincidence that Open Fiber has chosen Campli, near Teramo in Abruzzo, as the Municipality-symbol of the post-earthquake recovery, to open one of the construction sites of the Infratel tender which will bring fiber optic ultra-broadband to over three thousand Italian towns at less competitive appeal.
“Campli is one of the municipalities affected by last year's earthquake. In these areas we have to face the emergency, restore the ancient beauty, but also commit ourselves to the future: this is why the work of Open Fiber is important so that optical fiber arrives here too. We look to tomorrow to make earthquake-affected areas strong. Ultra-broadband must become a universal service and which will help us make Italian citizens more equal to one another, as was the case in the last century for motorways and electricity”. With these words the Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, inaugurated the construction site chosen to represent all the territories affected by the earthquake of October 2016.
And the work starts from here Open Fiber (OF), the company 50% Cassa depositi e prestiti (Cdp) and 50% Enel which is responsible for implementing the projects of the Italian digital agenda for ultra-broadband and which won the first and second Infratel tender for the cabling of bankruptcy areas market.
In Campli, in particular, the construction site relating to the first tender is starting, which involves 3.043 municipalities in six regions: Abruzzo, Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Molise, Tuscany and Veneto. The plan provides for the wiring of around 4.6 million real estate units, involving 6.4 million citizens and over 500 company and public administration offices. The network will be licensed to Open Fiber - which will also manage its maintenance - for 20 years and will remain publicly owned.
As for the second Infratel tender, it concerns 3.710 municipalities in 10 regions (Piedmont, Valle D'Aosta, Liguria, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Umbria, Marche, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata, Sicily) plus the Province of Trento, for a total of about 4.7 million real estate units and 6.8 million citizens involved.
The overall project therefore involves 6.753 municipalitiesi: the Regions of Calabria, Puglia and Sardinia are not yet involved and will be the subject of a third Infratel call for tenders.
“There are 26 construction sites already underway e in mid-2018 we will have 500 construction sites open. By the end of the year, we will be able to connect 2,4 million real estate units through a network that reaches users' homes", has explained Tommaso Pompei, CEO of Open Fiber. “We have already laid 4 km of fiber and have contracts with 32 operators. In clusters A and B, those in which operators invest, we will cover 271 cities by 2022, for a total of 9,5 million real estate units, while in clusters C and D, those with market failure, we have been awarded the two Infratel tenders and we will cable another 9,3 million real estate units in 36 months. Total investments amount to 6,5 billion, of which 2,7 are public. It is the largest European achievement in the field of network infrastructures”.
Secondo Franco Bassanini, president of OF, “in the coming years fiber and 5G will make a difference, but the infrastructure will be the same. It's this one infrastructure will be decisive above all for the internal areas, those outside the large metropolitan areas. Fiber is the future because it will allow you to work remotely and will enable the development of startups and the cloud, which gives reliability and safety. With this choice, the government has bet on the future of the country, which can and must be in the vanguard. When the project was launched there was a lot of criticism: I think critics today have to do self-criticism. The fiber will arrive in Campli earlier than in some districts of Rome”.
