In Consiglio Valle, the situation on the VdA Broadbusiness project and ultra-fast connections
Broadband internet connections, a painful issue for the mountainous territory of the Aosta Valley which has worsened with the pandemic. In the last year, thousands of Valle d’Aosta have had to work and study from home using a connection to the world wide web that is not always up to the needs.
The completion of the VdA Broadbusiness project has been awaited for years to bring optical fiber and ultra-fast connections to all the Aosta Valley municipalities. The point on the progress of the work was made in the Regional Council with an interpellation of the Lega VdA.
“This question arises from some reports I received: jumping net, control units with flying cables, tapes attached with tape, plastic covers” explained the Northern League councilor Nicoletta Spelgatti asking if there was the will to “develop a new coverage of the last mile to provide an ultra-fast connection to the internet for all Aosta Valley residents ».
The councilor for public works and innovation Carlo Marzi replied to the questioning. «The plan for the construction of a fiber optic infrastructure of over 700 kilometers and 600 free Wi-Fi access points envisages connecting approximately 17,000 residential units by 2021. In 2019 there were about 2,000 realizations, in 2020 about 8,000. We expect to connect about 33,000 units in 2022 to complete the planned 60,000 ”.
Regarding the coverage plan of the last mile, the commissioner explained that «at our settlement, in October 2020, there were 10 municipalities authorized to provide connection services with optical fiber up to the homes; in April 2021 the authorized municipalities increased to 15 and, at the same time, construction sites are open on 21 municipalities while another 16, having the approved executive project, will soon be ready for construction. The remaining municipalities included in the plan are in the executive planning phase. We have activated discussions with Open Fiber to affect the progress of the works and the recurring observation has always concerned the authorization procedures, which are considered complex and cumbersome “.
Last year, access to the 600 wi-fi access points in the area was “liberalized” to support the demand for fast connections for smart working workers and students in dad. However, the difficulties remained. “In some mountain locations – confirmed the councilor for innovation – private use of the network is still difficult: we are urging operators to improve the conditions of access to the network for the end user precisely for Wi-Fi hotspots. “.
Some figures provided by the councilor on costs. «The Plan cost just over 24 million euros, of which 9.8 million on the 2007-2013 ERDF programming and 12.6 million on the 2014-2020 ERDF and 1.7 million on the regional budget. The construction and management of the fiber optic infrastructure have been awarded to the temporary grouping of companies Telecom Italia, Alpitel and Sirti: the ordinary maintenance of the entire infrastructure involves an annual cost of 68,000 thousand euros plus VAT ».
Clara Rossi
.