The Government will take advantage of the European Recovery Fund to help meet its 2026 target to cover areas not served commercially – but will need to get going
The 5G plan is a key pillar of the Government’s Ultrabroadband Strategy: The ambitious “Ultrabroadband Strategy”, launched in May, aims to ensure nationwide gigabit connectivity by 2026 – four years ahead of the target (2030) set by the European Commission. The Italian Government is now acting on two key pillars of this strategy. In July, it approved the “Gigabit Plan”, which sets out the roadmap for fixed gigabit connectivity. This week, it opened a consultation on its “5G Plan”, which will remain open until 15 December. It is seeking stakeholders’ views on key aspects such as the speed thresholds and whether a gap funding model is an appropriate one.
How the Government plans to intervene: The 5G Plan is the result of a detailed work of mapping in cooperation with mobile operators. The Government has identified the areas where by 2026 it does not expect any network to provide connectivity with speeds of at least 30Mbps in typical peak-time conditions. In those areas, it will provide €2bn of funding to make available speeds of at least 150Mbps in download and 50Mbps in upload. €1bn of the total will be allocated to ‘market failure’ areas to build new base stations and create fibre backhaul links. €600m will be used to realise fibre backhaul on 10,000 kilometres of high-traffic roads to support the adoption of 5G applications, and €420m will support connectivity along more than 2,500km of “5G corridors” (these are cross-border corridors identified in cooperation with the EC). Winners of the tenders will retain ownership of the backhaul infrastructure, but will have to provide wholesale access at conditions set by the regulator AGCOM.
The Government will need to move quickly: The Government’s mapping exercise highlighted that 27% of the country is currently not served by mobile speeds of at least 30Mbps. By 2026, that will fall to 15%, which is the gap that the 5G Plan will need to close. The Government has identified more than 13,000 mobile sites that will require intervention – about 28% of the 47,000 mobile sites forecast in Italy by 2026. As if this task wasn’t daunting enough, the Government needs to hit the 2026 deadline in order to take advantage of the European Recovery and Resilience Fund, which has to be used by then. Italy is already slightly behind in its timetable, which aimed for Q3 2021 to close the consultation so that the tendering process could begin in Q1 2022. With moving parts that could change, the Government needs to move quickly if it stands a chance of meeting its target.
Source: https://innovazione.gov.it/notizie/articoli/parte-la-consultazione-pubblica-del-piano-italia-5g/
