News
Italian utility company to start work on first five cities next month; prime minister names date for start of broadband projects in uneconomic areas.
Enel will begin rolling out its fibre network in Italy in the next month or so, and at a press conference held by Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi on Thursday named the first five cities to be connected.
All eyes have been on Telecom Italia this week, which is reportedly mulling cutting as many as 15,000 jobs as a result of Enel’s plans to roll out fibre infrastructure, but while Enel is still holding talks with the Italian incumbent, there has thus far been no progress to announce.
"There is a synergy between the electricity network and the fibre network," which makes Enel’s planned infrastructure superior to that of the existing telephone network in terms of reach and proximity to the home, Enel CEO Francesco Starace told journalists at an event in Rome on Thursday, which was broadcast on the Italian government’s Website. Thus, Enel’s plan brings a "big benefit in terms of cost," and will ensure a faster rollout than a regular fibre deployment, he said.
Enel unveiled its plan to spend €2.5 billion rolling out a wholesale fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network in 224 Italian towns and cities last month. This week it named the first to be connected.
Phase one will see infrastructure deployed in 10 cities, the first five being Perugia, Cagliari, Bari, Venice and Catania, starting around the middle of May.
The others are Florence, Genoa, Naples, Padua and Palermo, with "the rollout beginning in the autumn of this year," Starace said.
The second phase of the project will comprise 40 cities, he added, without providing a timeframe, with the remainder to follow.
The Italian government has come under fire for its support of Enel, a part-state-owned entity, in its quest to diversify into high-speed broadband, rather than ploughing funding into Telecom Italia. But the controversy appeared to be no deterrent to Renzi, who spoke glowingly of Enel’s plans and the transferable skills it has derived from its energy operations all over the world.
"Enel is at the vanguard of technology," he said.
Enel’s 224 cities are some of the most potentially profitable for broadband service providers. But the PM also spoke out about the state’s plans to spread access to high-speed broadband elsewhere, revealing that its process for allocating funding for rollout in less economically viable areas – it refers to these as C and D locations, as opposed to the more profitable A and B areas – will start on 29 April.
"Italy must start to unlock public-private partnerships," he insisted.
Industry watchers are now waiting for some sort of response from Telecom Italia.
Starace reiterated that Enel is rolling out "an open, non-exclusive network," noting that the firm has "started dialogues with all of Italy’s telecoms operators."
Discussions with Wind and Vodafone Italia have been the most constructive, as evidenced by the presence of the two operators at Thursday’s event.
It remains to be seen who else will sign up to use the Enel network.
