Italian dark fibre operator Metroweb has been granted a €100m loan from Unicredit, according to local press reports.
The funds will reportedly be used to expand the Milan-based company’s fibre network, increasing national coverage by 7 to…
Italian dark fibre operator Metroweb has been granted a €100m loan from Unicredit, according to local press reports.
The funds will reportedly be used to expand the Milan-based company’s fibre network, increasing national coverage by 7 to 8%.
Metroweb and Unicredit were not immediately available for comment.
In recent months, the company, which is installing optic fibre beyond Milan to Genoa, Turin and Bologna, has been targeted by both Telecom Italia (TI) and Vodafone, which expressed an interest in acquiring the 53.8% stake held by Italian infrastructure fund F2i.
However, a deal did not materialise, reportedly due to corporate governance issues.
Both F2i and Telecom Italia said that, for the time being, they will continue to invest in infrastructure on their own.
Metroweb had launched an ambitious project to develop fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) infrastructure in 30 Italian cities, but backtracked after “the conditions initially predicted for the return on investment had changed”, according to a government document.
Last week, the Italian government approved a €6bn national ultra-fast broadband plan which aims to bridge the digital divide between the country and its European counterparts.
Under the plan, which targets broadband speeds of 100 Mbps to 85% of the population – and a minimum of 30 Mbps to all Italians – by 2020, telcos will receive a number of incentives to upgrade network infrastructure.
The project will mainly be financed with EU structural and development funds, although the government encouraged private investors to provide additional capital.
However, critics of the plan have argued that it creates regulatory uncertainty, potentially putting off private participation, as it does not provide any details with regard to the timing and terms of the network infrastructure tenders.
Furthermore, the plan does not specify which technology should be used to upgrade the network, which, according to some commentators, could lead to a loose and conflicting interpretation of the regulations.
The government initially aimed to deploy FTTH technology across the whole country, forcing Telecom Italia and other operators to switch off their copper-wire network entirely, but eventually opted for a more gradual and cost-effective fiber-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) solution.
Italy lags behind the rest of Europe in terms of broadband speed and network access.
In 2014, only 20% of the population could access broadband speeds of over 30 Mbps, against 62% at a European level, according to government data.
