Telecom Italia with the support of ZTE Corporation, a leading telecommunications equipment and network solutions supplier, has offered a significant boost to post-earthquake reconstruction by laying modern fibre-optic network infrastructure into every single new home in the C.A.S.E. project (the acronym stands for Earthquake-Proof, Sustainable and Environmentally-Compatible homes).
Under the “L’Aquila Ultrabroadband Project” initiative, on schedule, all 183 buildings on new plots have had ultra broadband connections installed capable of offering speeds of up to 100 Megabits per second. Every family assigned one of the 4,600 new homes will have access to telecommunications services and broadband links with sufficient capacity to offer groundbreaking services such as IPTV and high-speed internet access.
Building the new fibre-optic network in L’Aquila is part of Telecom Italia’s Next Generation Network (NGN2) development project, which has begun in Milan and Rome with a view to equipping the country with modern ultra-broadband telecommunications infrastructure.
The “L’Aquila Ultrabroadband Project” required installing fibre-optic network infrastructure combining Fibre To The Building (FTTB) and Fibre To The Home (FTTH) architecture.
ZTE helped to supply transmission equipment and all network solutions both from the exchange to the building and within buildings (GPON and VDSL2), using high-density, low-energy line cards.
Oscar Cicchetti, Head of Technology & Operations at Telecom Italia, says: “Telecom Italia has made a significant contribution to the whole earthquake relief effort, from handling the emergency to supporting people in the aftermath of the earthquake. As part of this commitment, the company was keen to build a modern fibre optic network for L’Aquila capable of delivering advanced telecommunications services. We are pleased with what we have achieved with ZTE, and with our joint commitment to build a major piece of infrastructure that should help the city back on track economically and materially.”
Fan Jiongyi, ZTE’s Country Manager for Italy, says: “ZTE is a leading optical network access product supplier with a great deal of expertise in PON technology applications. To date, ZTE has enabled more than 26 million lines with its xPON products, customized for carriers operating in regions ranging from China to Europe and the Middle East. ZTE has been working in partnership with Telecom Italia since early 2007. After three years of working together and rigourous equipment testing, we are proud to announce the rollout of one of Italy’s first FTTB networks.”
L’Aquila, 16 December 2009