Telecom Italia has announced the forthcoming rollout of next generation ultrabroadband services in Rome over its fibre optic network.
Currently more than 15,000 homes and offices in the Prati district are reached by fibre and this figure is set to exceed 80,000 by year-end extending coverage to the neighbourhoods served by the Belle Arti, Appia and Pontelungo exchanges. By 2011-2012 new fibre optic cables will serve around 350,000 properties in all main areas of the centre within the city ring road.
The work is part of Telecom Italia's NGAN (Next Generation Access Network) plan to deliver fibre optic connections to 1,300,000 customers in 13 Italian cities by 2012 and over 10 million users by 2016.
Starting next week a first pilot group of Telecom Italia customers will begin to test connections up to 100 Mbps, much faster than current broadband access, which will enable them to enjoy new online services like HD television, home automation, telepresence (video communications) and cloud computing. The aim is to gradually extend the trial to up to 1,000 customers.
The service will be made commercially available once the trial is completed and as soon as the new regulatory framework on NGAN networks is in place.
Works on the new network were able to go ahead thanks to recent changes to the city’s legislation on excavations (Del. 105 of 23/11/09), simplified authorisation procedures and innovative digging technologies such as mini-trenching. The new regulatory framework for construction follows the launch in March 2009 of the Digital Rome project with Unione Industriali di Roma and the City Council led by Mayor Alemanno.
The scheme is intended to boost the digitalization of public services including territorial security and surveillance, traffic news, telemedicine and the dematerialization of documents.
Rome, 22 May 2010