493 days have passed since the inter-ministerial committee for ultra-broadband, now incorporated into the new Committee for the digital transition, approved the launch of a demand incentive plan for fast internet connections. Now, after an almost unprecedented stalemate, which was influenced by the remarks of the European Commission and the criticisms of some telecommunication operators on specific points of the scheme initially developed, the government is trying to unblock the initiative (halfway).
The double track
After the pre-notification phase, in fact, in August the notification of the aid measure in relation to the incentives for companies to which Cobul assigned 551.8 million euros was sent to the offices of the EU DG Competition. Authorization from Brussels is expected with the aim of leaving within the year. The issue is more complicated for the new vouchers for families, for which 320.9 million will be available. In this case, further investigation is needed, also to possibly correct the proposal in light of the poor success that up to now the “phase 1” of the bonuses for home connections has had. In fact, from 9 November 2020 vouchers are active – also linked to the purchase of a tablet or a PC – reserved for families with an Isee of less than 20 thousand euros, but at the beginning of last August the budget has stopped at 165,500 contributions paid, for a total of over 82.7 million euros, equal to 40.5% of the 204 million available.
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For families
The initial scheme for “phase 2”, which the Conte-2 government planned to start at the beginning of 2021 but which, as mentioned, is now slipping again, includes vouchers for families with Isee up to 50 thousand euros, for a maximum amount of 200 euro and aimed at connectivity services of at least 30 Mbit / s. Forecast: 1.6 million beneficiary families. However, on the Isee but also on the minimum speed threshold, things could change.
For companies
As regards the business voucher, 429 thousand beneficiaries are estimated, the scheme approved by Cobul provides for contributions from 300 to 2,500, including activation costs, which vary according to performance (up to over 1 Gigabit / second) and company size.
The Infratel Committee
The voucher plan is one of the dossiers discussed on Thursday during the Steering and Monitoring Committee of Infratel, the in-house company of the Ministry of Economic Development that manages the measure, together with the Connected Schools Plan and the Wi-Fi project. Italy. The committee was chaired by undersecretary Anna Ascani who ensures “the utmost attention by the government to the implementation of projects aimed at the digital development of the country”. Regarding the delays in phase 2 of the vouchers, and the start-up objectives that were blatantly disregarded, Ascani replies by underlining that in the meantime, since May 2020, there has been a change of government and the crisis triggered by the pandemic that has also imposed other priorities.