La fiber of the "Italia a 1 Giga" plan of Open Fiber, project included in the Pnrr, starts from Isola delle Femmine. It is from here, on the outskirts of Palermo, that the race for the ultra-fast FTTH fiber kicks off, the project that aims to digitize in Sicily - with funds from the Pnrr (national recovery and resilience plan) - the areas not covered by at least one network capable of providing download connection speeds equal to or greater than 300 Bit/s. For the most part, these are the so-called gray areas, i.e. those areas that are neither commercially attractive (black) nor completely devoid of Internet connections (white).
Pnrr: Open Fiber launches “Italia a 1 Giga” in Sicily. Commitment to the South
The works of Open Fiber in the South Italy were divided into two “clusters” or groups. The first includes Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria and Campania for an investment of approximately 921 million. Here, 2,4 million real estate units have been connected and marketing has started in 65 cities. The second cluster involved an investment of 594 million in the same Regions as the first to which, however, Molise, Puglia, Sardinia and now Sicily must be added. In the second cluster, 776 Municipalities are in progress. Overall, the plan intends to reach 4,6 million real estate units, of which 3,8 million already connected with an investment of 1,5 billion, of which 1,1 already spent as at 30 September 2022.
In this picture, the importance of Sicily is clear. The new works at Isola delle Femmine – specifies the Open Fiber press release – “follow the Open Fiber cabling work completed in recent months. This new phase provides for the coverage of 570 house numbers, equal to approximately 1700 real estate units, in the most central area of the town.
Sicily and Open Fiber optic fiber: more services to the community
"Once the FTTH infrastructure has been completed, which allows you to have fiber at home, Isola delle Femmine will have guaranteed stable and high-performance access to numerous cutting-edge digital services, for the benefit of the entire community" he explains Clara Distefano, regional manager of Open Fiber in Sicily. “Connectivity expressed at its highest standards is an essential right for every citizen of our society. Thanks to the multiple opportunities that technological innovation offers”. The mayor of Isola delle Femmine is satisfied Horace Nuvoloso which underlines how this second intervention by Open Fiber "does not include costs for the municipal coffers and allows us to look optimistically at local socio-economic development, thanks to the strengthening of telecommunications networks that ensure fast connectivity to be able to carry out any type of activity . It's a real one digital highway and strategically it is worth as much as a great public work. We are proud to be the first shipyard in Sicily and one of the first on a national scale".
Open Fiber: coverage of schools in Southern Italy
Overall, Open Fiber connected 6.534 schools in Southern Italy with ultra-fast fiber. coming instead to the presence in Italy, Open Fiber was awarded a total of 8 lots in the tender, for a total of 3.881 municipalities in 9 regions: Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Lombardy, Puglia, Sicily, Tuscany and Veneto . The plan envisages the construction of high-speed networks with a coverage of around 3,3 million house numbers.
With over 14,5 million real estate units already connected in Italy to its new ultra-broadband network, the company led by CEO Mario Rossetti aims to cover around 25 million real estate units, equal to 94% of Italian municipalities. The overall plan, between private and public investment, is worth over 15 billion euros. To date, ultra-fast connectivity on the network created by Open Fiber is available in 225 cities and over 4200 small towns.
