Metroweb outlines 30 city FTTH scheme costing EUR4.5bn

Milan-based metropolitan fibre-optic operator Metroweb has told a parliamentary committee that it plans to initiate a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) scheme worth EUR4.5 billion (USD5.9 billion), covering 30 major Italian cities by 2015. Reuters Italia quotes Vito Gamberale, CEO of F2i – the infrastructure fund that acquired Metroweb for EUR436 million in June 2011 – as saying that the project will require around 28,000km of fibre infrastructure, of which 5,800km could be acquired from other companies – most notably broadband provider FastWeb, which acquired an 11.1% stake in Metroweb in November 2011. The fibre company hopes to cover twelve cities by 2013 (including Rome, Turin and Naples), rising to 18 by 2014, before completing its rollout target in 2015. When quizzed by the media how the plans will affect Telecom Italia’s previously-announced rollout of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) services in 138 cities by 2018, Gamberale described the two projects as ‘complementary’.