(Finance) – Good news for Italy from the point of view of FTTH coverage. Our country is confirmed in third place in absolute terms (after France and Spain) for real estate units covered in FTTH, with 14.6 million real estate units (+2.1 compared to the last survey). In percentage terms, with 55.5% UI in FTTH on the total lines, our country has reached the EU 27+1 average (the countries of the Union and the United Kingdom), which is 55.3%, while last year Italy was about one percentage point behind (47.7% against 48.5% in Europe).
This is what emerges from the new report presented by FTTH Council Europe, the European business organization aiming to accelerate the deployment of a full fiber optic network in Europe. The report, edited by Idate, illustrates the European scenario on FTTH with data updated to September 2022.
Most of the contribution to this goal can be attributed to Open Fiberwhich covered over 12.7 million IU in FTTH in the period under review and is by far the main FTTH operator in the country and one of the first in Europe.
Good news from rural areas (according to the definition of Idate, areas with a population density of less than 150 people per km2). In these areas – broadly coinciding with the white areas where Open Fiber is building an ultrabroadband network as a public concession as part of the plan BUL – Italy’s coverage went from 0% in 2017 (when the BUL plan was not yet operational) to 33% in 2022, getting ever closer to the EU average of 41%.
Our country, on the other hand, still remains behind from the point of view ofadoption of FTTH networks, where with its 22% it is still very far from the EU 27+1 average, close to 53%.