Vouchers for families without distinction of income, condominium bonuses for optical fiber and incentives for cloud services. The new interventions to support the spread of ultra-broadband are taking shape, currently contained in a public consultation by Infratel, the in-house company of the Ministry of Economic Development that manages the plan. After the observations of the operators, we will proceed with a decree of the ministry which will also divide the resources among the various interventions. There are 407.5 million available from the National Development and Cohesion Fund, 80% of which is reserved for the regions of Southern Italy. The highest shares are destined for Sicily (81.5 million), Campania (75.9) and Puglia (32.8).
The fit for families
For families, vouchers worth 300 euros are provided, without limits based on the ISEE (indicator of equivalent economic situation) unlike the first round of contributions which started in November 2020 and closed a year later. The value of 300 euros, Infratel clarifies, was defined on the basis of an evaluation of the prices of the offers on the market, estimating that with this contribution it is possible to cover on average up to 50% of a contract that guarantees an ultra-broadband service up to 24 months.
How the bonus will work
Families who are completely without a connectivity service or who switch from a contract with a performance of less than 30 megabits per second to a higher service will be able to access the contribution, obviously until resources are exhausted. If more than one ultra-broadband network arrives in the building, the voucher can only be issued for the highest-speed offer among those available and, in any case, only one contribution will be recognized for each family unit present in the same home. There will be no obligation to remain bound to the contract for which you benefited from the voucher and the right of withdrawal will remain, but in this case you will lose the right to the residual portion of the incentive.
The public consultation prepared by the company led by Marco Bellezza also foresees that, based on the needs indicated by the individual Regions, territorial limitations may be introduced, for example to give priority to more disadvantaged territories.
The condominium voucher
Phase 1 of the vouchers, which was reserved for families with Isee up to 20 thousand euros and also linked to the granting of a PC or a tablet, did not work as expected and saw the absorption of only 107 million out of the 200 million allocated. with the residues then diverted to incentives for SMEs. Phase 2, without Isee limits, also presents as a novelty the extension of funds to two other concessions: for the vertical cabling of condominiums and for cloud services. The condominiums must be connected with optical fiber and every single apartment must be reached. In this case, the amount of the bonus still needs to be established and in the public consultation Infratel asks operators to express a position on how to quantify the cost of the intervention.