An investment of over 750 million euros, thanks to a virtuous model of public-private partnership, giving a strong boost to the digitisation of Italy, starting from the Centre-South. Telecom Italia Group has been awarded all tenders called by the Ministry for Economic Development, through Infratel Italia, for the development and spread of ultrabroadband in the following seven regions: Molise, Lazio, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria and, lastly, Sicily.

The projects relate to the development of network infrastructures that benefit from public financing in the amount of around 358 million euros (passive part - excavations and dark fibre), in addition to a further 394 million supplied by Telecom Italia, of which 179 for the passive component and 215 for the electronics needed to supply the ultrabroadband service with speeds from 30 up to 100 Mbit/s.

The initiative will make fibre optic and TIM services available to around 10 million inhabitants in more than 760 Italian municipalities, through the connection of around 24,000 road cabinets. Connections at 100 Mbit/s will also be achieved for around 5,200 government offices, including more than 400 hospitals and medical facilities and almost 2,000 schools. This intervention will therefore bring the south into line with the more developed European areas in terms of ultrabroadband penetration.

"We are the first and only to invest in the Centre-South of Italy and to make a serious commitment to bridging the digital gap of our country" - declares Marco Patuano, Chief Executive Officer of Telecom Italia. "This is also thanks to a long-sighted approach taken by the Government and local administrations that have successfully made the most of the opportunities offered up by a public-private partnership. It's a model of collaboration that has proved to be not only functional, but also able to be replicated in other areas of the country to achieve the objectives set out in the European Digital Agenda. In just a few months, to support development in regions all over the territory, we will be offering the most modern ultrabroadband infrastructures to families, businesses and local governments".

The situation concerning the seven tenders issued by the Ministry for Economic Development in implementation of the "Strategic Ultrabroadband Project" drew to a close with the signing of the agreement between Infratel and the Telecom Italia Group for the development of passive optic infrastructures in the Region of Sicily. Works on the laying of fibre optic will therefore be launched over the next few days in Sicily too, scheduled for completion in January 2017, whilst in the other six regions, they are already at an advanced stage and most of the developments will take place between this year and 2016.

For the laying of the cables, the existing infrastructure will be exploited and in case of excavations, use will be made of techniques and innovative tools with low environmental impact that minimise intervention times, the area occupied by the site, soil effraction, the material removed, the deterioration of the pavement and, consequently, the road repairs.

Interventions in these seven regions of Central-South Italy come in addition to the national development plan that already sees TIM involved in the creation of the NGAN (Next Generation Access Network) in FTTCab (Fibre to the Cabinet) and FTTH (Fibre to the Home) technology, with the aim of reaching 75% of the population by 2017.

With this initiative, TIM has confirmed its commitment to innovating in the territory and disseminating the services enabled by these solutions, thereby contributing towards the achievement of the objectives outlined by the Digital Agenda.