The Italian post office (Poste Italiane) announced new contracts with Telecom Italia (TIM) and wholesale operator Open Fiber to bring fixed line high-speed broadband services to residents and businesses all over the country, above all in digital divide areas. "Thanks to this agreement, Poste Italiane will provide the country with fibre-optic services using ultra-broadband technologies, combining the capillarity of the post office network with the expansion of TIM's fibre network throughout the country,” confirmed TIM in a brief statement.
The post office said it had also reached a deal with Open Fiber that "confirms the central role of Poste Italiane in the process of digitization and economic development", allowing it to strengthen its ability to respond more effectively to its clients' needs. It added that the fibre project will be managed by its Postepay subsidiary.
Separately, La Repubblica reported that Vodafone Italia has been awarded the contract to provide mobile telephony services to the post office’s mobile operator PosteMobile, the country’s leading MVNO with 4.5 million customers at the end of Q1. Vodafone is already the provider of the MVNO’s ‘Casa’ home broadband service and has now been contracted to take over from WindTre as PosteMobile’s mobile provider, said the report, without adding any further details. Vodafone was PosteMobile's original provider when it launched in 2007 before the MVNO migrated to Wind's network in mid-2014.
