Telecom Italia (TIM) has signed an agreement with public utility federation Utilitalia to use the infrastructure of 500 local utility operators to roll out fibre-optic cables throughout the country. Under the terms of the MoU, Utilitalia has pledged to facilitate the pre-existing infrastructure (pipes, ducts and public lighting networks) of over 500 federated electricity, gas, water and the environment management companies for the development of TIM’s fibre-optic network.
TIM said the MoU is the first non-exclusive framework agreement defining a single procedure that is immediately applicable on a national level for the access and joint use of utility infrastructure, considerably reducing digging required and the resulting disturbance to locals and traffic. The partners also agreed to work together in the event new infrastructure needs to be designed.
Earlier this year TIM signed an agreement to use the pipes of regional utility A2A to roll out fibre-optic cables in Milan, having last year reached deal to use the existing infrastructure of local energy company TCVVV in the northern Italian town of Tirano.
TIM’s fibre network currently covers 17 million homes in around 2,100 localities, around 71 percent of the country. Earlier this year it announced plans to reach 95 percent of Italian homes in 2018 and 99 percent in 2019.
