The Net

Fiber

Our goal is to bring fiber to 90% of families reached by the fixed network nationwide by December, as a key step towards bridging the digital divide in Italy by 2021. During the Covid-19 crisis the cabling programme effort has been intensified in order to provide an optimal network performance despite the higher traffic generated in this period.  

At the end of September, our UBB retail+wholesale customers were 8.2 million, connected on a FTTx network and, sometimes, also through FWA - Fixed Wireless Access technology. In this case the Wi-Fi of the customer’s home router connects, in wireless, to the nearest antenna of TIM’s mobile network which, in turn, is connected to the optic fiber network.

The variety of FTTx accesses depends on which segment of the network is connected in fiber.  FTTH (Fiber To The Home):  this technology brings optical fiber directly into the appartments  and FTTC or FTTCab (Fiber To The Cabinet) which brings the fiber to the streetside cabinets.  

2020-2022 Strategic Plan target : the evolution of FTTC coverage into FTTH for 40% of  households by 2023.

The agreement with Infratel

This is another way to speed up the development of ultrabroadband: a public company, Infratel (the in-house company of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development) and a private one, TIM, together to bring new generation services in about 600 municipalities spread over 8 regions, that are 'market failure' areas. The partnership will result in a plan of activities for the regions and municipalities involved. TIM will get hold of a significant amount of dark-fibre infrastructure built by Infratel and carry out a road map of activation, once the fibre optics have been provided by Infratel, in order to provide ultrabroadband services using FTTC and FTTH technology.  To address the COVID-19 emergency, the plna has been accelerated.  

The Single Network project 

On August 31st the Board of Directors approved the agreement with KKR Infrastructure and Fastweb for the establishment of FiberCop, the NewCo to which TIM’s secondary network  (from cabinets to customers’ homes) will be transferred along with the fibre network developed by FlashFiber, the joint venture in which TIM has an 80% and Fastweb a 20% stake. The Board also expressed its satisfaction with the recent signing of a letter of intents with Tiscali. The agreement is the first step towards creating an Italian digital fibre network company, which is a turning point for telecommunications in the country.

The Board also approved the signing of the letter of intents with CDP Equity intended to integrate FiberCop in the wider plan to establish a single national network company. 

Under the chairmainship of Massimo Sarmi, on November 13 the Board of Directors of FiberCop S.p.A. met for the first time, to resolve on the carrying out of the corporate tasks aimed at starting Company operation in the first quarter of 2021.

Fibercop - of which TIM will hold 58%, KKR Infrastructure 37.5% and Fastweb 4.5% - will offer passive access services to the secondary network in copper and fibre to all market operators, with the aim of completing the fibre coverage plans of the black and grey areas of the country and speeding up adoption of the ultrabroadband (UBB) services.

FiberCop was created as a project for the innovation of the network infrastructure to ensure, with a great sense of responsibility and urgency considering the contingent times, the speeding up of Italy’s digitisation.

This mission is also clearly expressed by the company’s logo, approved by the Board of Directors, which, through the colours of the Italian flag, intends to explicitly recall the role it will be called upon to play for the country.

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About LTE and 5G

The ultrabroadband mobile network LTE- Long Term Evolution today reaches more than 99% of Italians.  LTE/4G  represents the fourth generation (4G) mobile phone systems. 

4G network allows data transmission speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s in download and 50 Mbit/s in upload.  With 4.5G technology our customers are able to reach browsing speeds of up to 700 Mbps in downlink, with a particularly fluid and stable browsing experience. Downloading of films in high definition will take just a few minutes, allowing customers to enjoy full HD and 4K video content on the move.

Today 5G commercial services ARE available in 10 cities, 30 tourist destinations and 50 industrial districts, with speeds of up to 2 gigabits a second. 5G performance: faster download speed (at least 10 times higher than 4G), lower latency (which will change from current rates of 20 milliseconds to about 1 millisecond), a higher number of devices handled (up to 10 times) and significant use of the Internet of Things, connecting up to one million devices and sensors per km2 simultaneously, with extremely high quality and reliable service.

2020-2022 Strategic Plan target: national 5G population coverage by 2025/26.