Italy’s largest utility Enel could help the government save billions of euros by allowing its infrastructure to host fiber optic cables, CEO Francesco Starace said.The company, which aims to deploy new smart meters to 33 million households over the…
Italy’s largest utility Enel could help the government save billions of euros by allowing its infrastructure to host fiber optic cables, CEO Francesco Starace said.
The company, which aims to deploy new smart meters to 33 million households over the next four years, could lay the cables inside the pipes used to connect the new meters, Starace told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Paris.
“What we are proposing is to give the opportunity to … use our pipelines, do not destroy walls, do not break everything, just use that. This will reduce the cost of fibre cable laying by a factor of five,” he was quoted as saying.
He reportedly added that Enel, which is 25.5% owned by the Italian Economy and Finance Ministry, would help lay cables charging a yearly maintenance fee of hundreds of millions of euros, but does not intend to own or manage the fibre network.
This confirms analysts’ views that, even if the former electricity incumbent were involved, telecom operators would still play a pivotal role in the project.
Enel sent a letter of intent to telecoms regulator AGCOM on 14 April to express its interest in helping develop a national fibre network.
Other infrastructure companies interested in the project include regional utility A2A and state-owned railway operator Ferrovie dello Stato (FS).
Although Starace acknowledged that talks are still in their infancy, Telecom Italia(TI) said it would be available to cooperate with Enel or other interested parties to speed up network deployment.
Matteo Renzi’s government has pledged to place the country on a par with its European counterparts through a €12bn high-speed broadband plan that targets speeds of 100 Mbps to 85% of the population – and a minimum of 30 Mbps to all Italians – by 2020.
However, in spite of publicly supporting the government’s digital strategy, TI has voiced some criticism of the project, which would be funded with a mix of private and public investments, warning that there is still significant regulatory uncertainty around the plan.
Yesterday Reuters quoted Italy’s junior minister for communications, Antonello Giacomelli, as saying that he expected the decree detailing the project’s tools, resources, timing and procedures to be ready within the next few days.
