Italy puts up €3.7 billion to fuel gigabit broadband push

The Italian government buckled down on broadband, launching a new multi-billion euro fund that aims to provide enough support to help operators push gigabit services to nearly 7 million locations in the coming years. Dubbed Italia a 1Giga (or “Italy to 1 Gig”), the funding initiative is set to provide a total of €3.65 billion (approximately $4.14 billion) in grants to fuel deployments across 15 regions in Italy. Operators will be permitted to submit bids for the grants through March 16, and will be able to win funding in a maximum of eight regions. Winning bidders will be required to deliver broadband service offering speeds of 1 Gbps downstream and 200 Mbps upstream by June 30, 2026. The grants may be used to cover up to 70 percent of the operators’ project costs. Bids will be judged on economic considerations, the characteristics of the planned network, the quality of recruitment and training plans for personnel, and the commitments made to ensure diversity and support for disadvantaged groups. According to a timeline included in the “Towards a Gigabit Society” strategy issued in May 2021, awards are scheduled to be made sometime before the end of Q2 2022.