(Ticker) – “We have already invested over 6 billion euros in Italy and covered with the ultrabroadband network 15.7 million units real estate: houses, offices, offices of the public administration”. He affirmed it ary Rossetti, CEO of Open Fiberspeaking at the Euro-Mediterranean Economics Festival in Naples, where he pointed out that “since the entry of Open Fiber on the market, Italy has climbed the European rankings in the segment of connectivity jumping from 26th in 2018 to 7th place in 2022“.
According to the latest DESI report, in fact, the Italy’s FTTH coverage rose to 44% from 22% five years ago, coming close to the EU average (50%).
“In Italy they are being carried out massive investment e the infrastructure is expanding”, the manager explained again, pointing out that there is also a major issue: “in our country there are lowest prices in Europe in the telecommunications sector and this places a problem of sustainability of infrastructure investments“.
For the CEO of Open Fiber a “rationalization of scarce resources” is needed, i.e. human capital and investment, but also “move to take upi.e. on the use of the network, planning “a large operation of industrial policy that points to the switch off of the copper networkas done with digital terrestrial”.
The migration from copper to fiber – underlined Rossetti – also has a aspect of energy sustainability: various international studies in fact report reductions of around 85-90% for fiber access networks compared to copper ones.
“Southern Italy plays an important role in the Open Fiber plan. We have already invested over 1 billion euros and will still invest over 1.2 billion. In total, we are therefore talking about over 2.2 billion euros for five Regions: Puglia, Campania, Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata“, said the number one of the company, specifying that the aim is to connect around 4.6 million real estate units in black areas (large cities) and in the common municipalities of the BUL plan (white areas) and another 1.6 million with the Italia 1 Giga plan, financed with the PNRR, in Puglia, Campania and Sicily, for a total of over 1,100 municipalities.
“In addition to investments – added the manager – we also need to consider the job opportunities that the OF project has generated in the southern regions: between direct and related employees, we employ around 2 thousand people. Open Fiber has offices throughout the South: Naples (territorial management), Bari, Potenza, Cosenza, Catania and Palermo”.
For Rossetti this “it is a historic occasion” for the South which will thus be able to pass from Cinderella of Italy to protagonist of the country’s development“. “Our goal is to create intelligent cities and connected villages – he said – giving the South a leading role also from a technological point of view by attracting new investments, new professional skills and job opportunities. What we are building is an infrastructure that shortens distances and also takes on a social valueespecially in more isolated areas – where citizens must be able to use the most advanced digital services just like the inhabitants of large cities – but also a driver of development of production activities, from industry 4.0 to smart agriculture “.
About the plan BUL national, the CEO of OF defines itand “a priority” for the company, reporting that “during 2022 there was a progressive acceleration in the development of the infrastructure which today allows us – with almost 60,000 km of network built out of a total of 88,000 – to target completion of the BUL Plan”.