Open Fiber to expand 1Gbps FTTH network in Lazio Port City
Italian Broadband vehicle, Open Fiber and the state lender CDP has reached an agreement with the Civitavecchia Council to connect the Lazio Port City with fiber optic cables. Open Fiber’s cable network will cover more than 17,000 premises in the city.
Since its inception as a dedicated Fiber Broadband Deployment vehicle of the Italian Government, Open Fiber has been active in the Broadband market expanding fiber networks many areas in the country. As its name indicates, Open Fiber construct and lease fiber optic networks to Italian Broadband service providers.
Open Fiber is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Italian utility company, Enel and is funded by the State lender CDP. Both CDP and Open Fiber announced their plan to build fiber network in Lazio port city that would span more than 120 kilometers. The fiber cables will provide high-speed broadband based on Fiber to the Home (FTTH) architecture.
Open Fiber’s FTTH Broadband speeds are up to 1Gbps. In Lazio Port city around 17,000 premises can benefit from the deployment, which is planned to complete by 2020.
Going in line with purpose of its inception, Open Fiber has connected a total of 4.8 million homes throughout Italy at the end of 2018. The company targets to bring FTTH connections to around 19.5 million homes and businesses in 271 Italian cities and 7,000 underserved localities over the next 3 years.
The creation of Open Fiber to some extent has threatened the broadband business of the incumbent telecommunication service provider Telecom Italia (TIM). TIM has been concentrating on Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC) architecture delivering 30Mbps speeds by tapping the potential of its existing copper cables in the last mile. The deployment process and speed were not up to the expectations of Policy makers and government officials, which caused to the formation of a separate organization to boost Fiber broadband in Italy.
Over a period of time both TIM and Open Fiber had reached to consensus in many areas including sharing of networks and a common build of fiber infrastructure in the country. CDP has control over the funding of both firms and hence a unified fiber build idea has been on the table.
There were talks of merger of both firms and local media has reported the Vivendi’s decision to support the merger. The French Media company Vivendi is a major share holder in TIM. The merger will reshape the dynamism of telecommunication market in Italy.
Open Fiber continues its aggressive deployment strategy in Italy. Last month, the company announced its plans to launch telemedicine trial with Milan’s Policlinico. Also, the Open Fiber and the state lender CDP announced an investment of 16 million euros to develop FTTH networks in Brescia.
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