(Teleborsa) – It was announced today closure of the BUL Plan in Molisethe first Italian region to reach this important milestone, thanks to the commitment made by Open Fiber as part of the plan promoted by MIMIT to bridge the digital divide and connect small villages to the latest generation FTTH fiber optic network.
Present at the closing ceremony of the works, at the Ex Gil headquarters, headquarters of the Tourism Department, the vice president of the Molise Region Andrea Di Lucentethe Councilor for the digital transition Salvatore Miconethe CEO of Open Fiber Giuseppe Gola and the BUL Infratel Italia Plan Manager Luigi Cudia.
After having won the public tender announced by Infratel, Open Fiber has completed, with modern techniques and low environmental impact, a 1,700 kilometer infrastructure entirely in optical fiberwith a connection that can reach one speed of 10 Gigabits per secondreaching 130 municipalities (49 in the province of Isernia and 81 in Campobasso) and connecting 133 thousand homes and 688 offices of the Central and Local Public Administration (municipal offices, police stations, schools, libraries, hospitals and clinics).
A network that will bring many benefits for citizens, businesses and public administration – telemedicine, smart working, environmental monitoring, public lighting management and many others – and it will guarantee energy saving (consumes over 60% less energy than a copper network) e reduction of CO2 emissions.
“Today the completion of the Ultra Broadband Plan in the Molise area is celebrated: the intervention involved over 130 municipalities, equal to a potential regional population catchment area of 56%, requiring almost 45 million in subsidized investments, 60% of which from public resources “, recalled the Minister of Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Ursoadding “a national record that deserves to be highlighted, given the positive effects that the Ultra Broadband Plan will bring to the economic and social system of the entire region and beyond”.
“The development of optical fiber – the Minister recalled – is a formidable enabler in the innovation process essential to the double transition: it allows the system to make a significant leap forward in the use of frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum, augmented virtual reality, the blockchain, all of which require, without distinction, the ultra-fast network”.
“Molise is the first and only Italian region to have completed the fiber infrastructure interventions in the municipalities envisaged by the Plan”. underlined the Councilor for the digital transition Salvatore Miconewhich speaks of “a very great result that makes us proud and which materializes in a promising challenge that offers the concrete opportunity for social growth and economic development of the entire regional territory and of local communities, especially in the internal, rural and mountain areas that are at high risk of marginalization and territorial isolation”.
Giuseppe GolaCEO of Open Fiber, stated that “the ultra-fast fiber optic coverage of all 130 municipalities in Molise covered by the BUL plan is a source of pride for Open Fiber, a decisive step towards eliminating the digital divide in the region and the first goal of the social mission in the white areas”.
“We are particularly pleased to be able to announce the completion of the Bul plan in Molise, the first Italian region to reach this goal – he underlined Luigi Cudia, Head of BUL Infratel Italia Plan -. This is a fundamental pillar of the overall public intervention that Infratel Italia is implementing and which includes, in addition to the BUL plan, the 1G Italy plan, the Connected School plan and the Connected Healthcare plan”.
“Molise has achieved something truly extraordinary: it has become the first region in Italy to complete its broadband objectives under its 2014-2022 rural development programme,” he agreed Filip BuszHead of Unit EU Commission DG Agriculture, underlining that “this result is not just about faster internet speed; it is also about looking to the future”, although “further efforts are still needed to ensure that these same families have the resources and of the support needed to subscribe to broadband connectivity. This includes eliminating potential barriers such as affordability, accessibility and awareness, to ensure that every Molise family can benefit from the opportunities offered by high-speed Internet.”
In addition to the small villages and more isolated municipalities covered by the BUL plan, Open Fiber is present with proprietary FTTH network in Campobasso, Isernia and Termoliwith a private investment of 8.3 million of euros and a total of 47 thousand houses connected. The company aims to guarantee coverage of the major Italian cities and the connection of rural and industrial areas. To date, the company has put over 13.5 million real estate units on sale in FTTH and is the main FTTH operator in Italy, among the leaders in Europe, and the first among the wholesale only operators on the continent.
