There are 6.31 billion euros for ultra-fast networks in the Pnrr (National Recovery and Resilience Plan): for optical fiber, fixed wireless and 5G, with the aim of giving 1 Gigabit to families, businesses, schools. Cover everyone, by 2026, thus anticipating the goal of the new European Digital Compass strategy by four years.
In the end, the pressing of many on the Government was successful: operators (with the AssTel association), majority (with a document signed by bipartisan deputies), Infratel (in-house company of the Mise), experts (Maurizio Decina of the Polytechnic of Milan) strongly supported the idea that the billions allocated by the old government for the network, in the first version of the PNRR, were really too few. They would have given us an Italy inadequate to withstand the competition with other countries – in light of the very different commitment shown by France, Spain, Germany; there was nothing, for example, to extend 5G coverage.
Colao: “With digital, a fairer Italy for young people and women”
by Roberto Mania
Just 1.1 billion euros allocated for the network; Asstel asked for 10, Infratel 5 billion. The new government, already in the first words to the Chamber of the Minister of Innovation Vittorio Colato, had promised a change.
Here are the effects.
“To deliver on the promise of a universal Gigabit society based on a very high-capacity fixed and mobile network infrastructure, a technology-neutral approach is adopted that optimizes the use of resources,” the plan reads.
In particular, resources have been allocated for: bring connectivity to 1 Gbps (“Italy 1 Giga” Plan) to approximately 8.5 million households, businesses and entities in the gray and black areas NGA market failure, aiming for full technological neutrality and leveraging the best technological solutions available, both fixed (fiber full optics) and FWA (fixed-wireless).
At the moment these are the technologies that allow you to reach (and exceed) the Gigabit and are considered “future-proof”. Not the optical fiber up to the cabinets and the rest in copper, which is the main Italian ultra-broadband technology. One news is that copper will disappear in the next few years as a result of the plan.
Recall that the current public plan has focused on the white areas (where no operator had ultra-large bank investment plans) and is delayed by about two or three years. The PNRR will complete the coverage of the white areas and will upgrade the ultra-broadband to the black (highly competitive) and gray ones (on the edges of the cities, where the bulk of the industrial districts are). The plan for the gray areas is years behind the announcements and first allocations (dating back to the Renzi government) and the PNRR will be an opportunity to unblock it.
The plan also includes about 450,000 real estate units located in remote areas (so-called scattered houses), not included in the public intervention plans.
With the “Connected School” project, we want to ensure the 1 Gbps fiber connection to the 9 thousand remaining school buildings (equal to about 20 per cent of the total). Other points of the plan: ensure adequate connectivity (from 1 Gbps up to symmetrical 10 Gbps) to the more than 12 thousand supply points of the National Health Service.
Provide 18 smaller islands with fiber optic submarine backhauling (Plan “Connection of the smaller islands”) to improve existing connections and respond to the growing BUL connectivity needs of families, businesses and institutions present. This was a point asked by Infratel.
Encourage the development and diffusion of the 5G infrastructure in mobile areas with market failure (“Italy 5G” Plan), i.e. areas where only 3G mobile networks have been developed and the development of 4G or 5G networks is not planned in the next 3 years, or there are 4G networks that do not guarantee adequate performance.
The Plan includes interventions to accelerate the spread of 5G coverage along over 2,000 km of European transport corridors and 10,000 km of extra-urban roads, to enable the development of services to support road safety, mobility, logistics and tourism. .
The Pnrr explains that – as requested by the operators – “the investment is accompanied by a simplification of the authorization processes that recognizes the infrastructures for fiber optic cabling and 5G coverage as strategic, thus speeding up their diffusion throughout the territory”.
As for funds, however, “the planned interventions are complementary (and not substitutes) with respect to the concessions already approved in the white areas (or with 5G calls) and allow further (and not yet planned) investments to be activated by private operators”.
“In addition to the infrastructure coverage of the country, action is taken on the demand for connectivity of families and businesses, carefully monitoring the Voucher Plan in progress in order to update it and, if necessary, strengthen it to maximize the impact of the public subsidy granted”.
Indeed there are no demand incentives at the moment – this is the purpose of the current voucher plan – even if the adoption rate of ultra-broadband is one of Italy’s main problems in these areas.
It is not yet known when the second – and main – phase of the voucher plan will start, with contributions to families and businesses that are equipped with fast internet. The plan is now being examined by the European Commission.
Comment Cesare Avenia, president of Confindustria Digitale: “We appreciate the effort made to ensure more resources for the implementation of fiber and 5G networks, especially since in the Pnrr this commitment is supported both by the explicit indication on the need to adapt the regulatory framework in order to facilitate the implementation of interventions, both from the recognition that ultra-fast broadband networks (Very High Capacity Network) constitute a technology of general interest capable of increasing productivity and stimulating growth in all sectors of the economy “. “In the Plan it is clear that the real challenge is on the conditions for implementing the interventions that must change, in order not to run the risk of finding ourselves in 2026 with other digital divides such as those that have delayed the economic development of our country in past years. which means – continuing, among other things, simplification of permits for the implementation of the fiber and homogenization of procedures at national level, adaptation of electromagnetic limits to European standards, but also development of demand through the simplification of procedures for access to incentives for connectivity and for Transition 4.0 “.
“Well the approach of the PNRR, the need for governance of the ultra-broadband issue is finally recognized; cause of so many delays recorded so far”, he comments Francesco Bellini, professor of digital transformation at the Sapienza University of Rome.
“The challenge will be to equip the country with the implementation capacities that have been lacking so far. Those of program management, to establish tasks and responsibilities with which to actually implement the plan”. So far we have not been able to do things well and in time. Will the PNRR be a turning point? “Perhaps, because we will have to do things in the right time to get those funds from Europe. What better incentive not to make mistakes again?”, Replies Bellini.
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