Italy poised to launch third fixed broadband tender - report

Italy's state-owned infrastructure firm Infratel will publish the conditions for the third and final lot of tenders to build a national high-speed broadband network in digital divide areas by mid-January, reports Corriere delle Comunicazioni. The third tender covers the regions of Calabria, Puglia and Sardinia, with operators having been given until 20 November 2017 to confirm their existing levels of coverage in the three regions and to outline their rollout plans over the next three years. Infratel had previously announced that it wanted to prevent infrastructure duplication between state-funded and private fibre rollouts.

The Open Fiber wholesale-only venture of Italian utility Enel and state lender CDP is the frontrunner to win the tender after having been awarded the first two national broadband tenders, namely a EUR 1.4 billion contract to roll out fibre cable in underserved parts of Abruzzo, Molise, Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Tuscany and Veneto followed by a EUR 1.2 billion concession to build and operate a fibre network in the regions of Piedmont, Aosta Valley, Liguria, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Umbria, Marche, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata, Sicily and the Autonomous Province of Trento. Open Fiber said the first two tenders cover well over 9 million homes in 6,753 localities.