Telecom Italia and Fastweb extend their respective fiber optic networks to Rome. Thanks to an agreement between the two companies and the Municipality of Rome, work has begun to bring the Internet connection up to 100 Megabits per second to over 1 million households and businesses, by laying optical fiber from the exchanges to the road near the houses. The works have already started and will be completed by 2014. Innovative techniques will be used for laying the fiber to minimize environmental impacts and, thanks to an agreement signed with Acea, the works for the power supply of the storage cabinets will also be coordinated. road, where necessary.
In Rome, Telecom Italia and Fastweb laid the first fiber optic cores at the end of the 90s. Since then, the two companies have operated in the city to offer ultra-broadband services to the public administration and large companies in the area, and to reach homes and small businesses.
With the new project presented today, Telecom Italia and Fastweb are extending the new generation network throughout the municipal area, reaching all the Municipalities. The companies are laying over 4.000 kilometers of optical fiber which will serve to connect over 6.000 street cabinets equipped with new generation electronics. Most of the fiber will be laid in existing cable ducts and only 300 kilometers of new trenches will be added. The investment planned by the two companies to build the new network totals over 300 million euros.
The works in progress use non-invasive excavation techniques, such as no-dig and mini-trenches, and a part of the road closets will be buried to minimize environmental impacts. Thanks to the innovative memorandum of understanding signed with Acea, the civil connection works for the electricity supply of the road cabinets were further optimised, with advantages in terms of coordination of the excavation works and limitation of inefficiencies for citizens.
The new network infrastructure will enable new Public Administration services for citizens and businesses, allowing the Municipality to develop services characteristic of smart cities. Furthermore, with the fiber optic network, more and more citizens will be able to enjoy a higher quality Internet connection which allows the use of several devices at the same time in the home without slowing down the connection (computers, tablets, smartphones, TVs connected to the Internet, video game consoles). , but also to consult the web more quickly, watch high-quality videos, download applications in real time, back up data on the network, upload photographs or videos to the network, communicate with the public administration, access, in the near future , to online services such as telemedicine.
The ultra-broadband network, thanks to its greater reliability, also allows the adoption of innovative services for small and medium enterprises. In addition to making current connectivity services more efficient, optical fiber enables new generations of applications such as cloud computing services, software as a service, data backup, managed security services, video surveillance services, teleworking, bringing benefits in terms of competitiveness to businesses.
