Italian telco says it has rolled out fibre network to 1,100 municipalities.
Telecom Italia on Friday shared more details of its high-speed broadband rollout project, including the fact that it is currently laying hundreds of kilometres of fibre every 60 minutes.
"Thanks to the major investment plan dedicated to ultrabroadband, we are proceeding at a rate of 250 km of fibre optic cables laid on average every hour," said group chairman Giuseppe Recchi, in a statement.
In total, the Italian incumbent has rolled out more than 11 million kilometres of fibre-optic cables to support its high-speed broadband plan. It has covered 1,100 Italian municipalities with fibre, while 6,300 are able to access 4G services via the TIM mobile network, it said.
"The fixed and mobile network infrastructure now reaches over 45% of properties with fixed ultrabroadband services, and over 91% of the population with 4G," Recchi said.
The firm aims to reach 84% of homes with fibre broadband, including 20% with fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), and to reach 98% mobile ultrabroadband coverage by the end of 2018, he said.
Telecom Italia, which now uses the TIM brand for both its fixed and mobile operations, has earmarked €4.8 billion for investment in ultrabroadband in the 2016-2018 period; the bulk – €3.6 billion – will be spent on the fixed network, with 20% allocated to FTTH.
The telco's announcement came as part of its recognition of Internet Day, which marks 30 years since the first Internet connection was made in Italy.
totaltele.com Mary Lennighan |
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