Thanks to an investment of over 6 million euros, Reggio Calabria is one of the first cities in Italy to boast a new generation telephone infrastructure now fully operational for the benefit of private citizens and businesses. The important infrastructural operations relative to the creation of fixed and mobile ultra fast networks in the city were presented today by Saverio Anghelone, Deputy mayor of the City of Reggio Calabria, Agata Quattrone, Councillor for Sustainable Town Planning, - Mobility and Transport, Smart City of the Municipality of Reggio Calabria, and by Mariano Leonardi, Head of Access Operations Line Calabria of Telecom Italia.
Since the launch of the project, which saw Telecom Italia working to build the new fibre optic Next Generation Access Network (NGAN) and 4G mobile network, including the most highly evolved version, ultrabroadband is now a reality in Reggio Calabria. This result has been achieved thanks to the significant investments made by Telecom Italia and its collaboration with the municipal authorities of Reggio Calabria , both of which have allowed the excavation and cable laying work to take place quickly, minimising the time and cost of the work and its impact on the city.
In Reggio Calabria the programme already covers over 31 thousand properties amounting to about 50 % of the population thanks to the laying of approximately 110 kilometres of fibre optic cable (of which only 22 km involved digging and mainly of the innovative, low residential-impact type). Over the year ultrabroadband coverage should reach a level of about 80%.
The result achieved confirms the commitment on the part of both Telecom Italia and the municipal authorities to boost the work being done and quickly provide households and businesses with a 50 Megabit Internet connection, thus adding Reggio Calabria to the élite group of Italian cities where ultrabroadband services are now available.
Telecom Italia's “Ultra Internet” services based on FTTCab (Fiber to the Cabinet) technology already offer a super-fast 50 Megabit per second download speed connection with performance and service levels that dramatically improve the experience of surfing the Net. .
In future, there is potential to improve the performance of fibre optic connections to provide speeds of up to 100 Megabits per second.
Furthermore, businesses can access the world of Impresa Semplice professional IT solutions, using them to their full potential thanks to the fibre optic connection. Ultrabroadband also enables innovative applications, such as telepresence, video surveillance, cloud computing services for businesses, as well as applications allowing local authorities to implement the smart city model, including systems for security and monitoring the territory, infomobility and sensor networks for environmental tele-monitoring.
As regards mobile telephony, Reggio Calabria is among the leading cities at a national level. TIM's new service 4G Plus, the LTE Advanced Technology was in fact recently launched, enabling real transmission speeds almost double those currently available. Telecom Italia has created the new 4G network throughout the municipal territory, reaching a coverage close to 98% of the population thanks to the adaptation of 50 radio base stations (to which another 22 will be added by the end of 2016) with the activation of 4G Plus in some areas, providing connections up to 225 Megabit a second in download, making services and high definition multimedia content available on mobile devices. The TIM new generation mobile network offers a considerably higher speed than that of previous generation networks thus providing users with a performance and service levels considerably improving the net surfing experience and the use of innovative contents on mobile devices, such as video streaming in HD.
“We are pleased that Reggio Calabria is one of the first Italian cities to have modern network infrastructures enabling citizens and businesses to make the most of innovative services, contributing to the development of the local economy and to the increasing efficiency of municipal services, such as in the field of traffic information and safety - said Mariano Leonardi, Head of Access Operations Line Calabria of Telecom Italia. - Within the sphere of its investments plan, Telecom Italia has decided to dedicate a significant share of its development programmes to the ultrabroadband networks, thereby making a significant contribution to achieving the objectives laid down in the European Digital Agenda. Fibre optic and 4G Plus are now a reality in Reggio Calabria, also thanks to the active involvement of the municipal authorities".
In Reggio Calabria, thanks to the modern network infrastructures, citizens and workers will be able to make the most of innovative services contributing to the development of the local economy and to the increased efficiency of municipal services. For this reason, on behalf of the Falcomatà City Council, – the deputy mayor of the City of Reggio Calabria Saverio Anghelone, declared - I would like to thank Telecom Italia for having invested in our city, in the sector for new technologies applied to the Network, which will allow us to better implement the projects we have been working on since we were elected, for the creation of a smart city, also in the light of the founding of the Greater Metropolitan Area of Reggio Calabria”.
"The technological jump, a formidable driver for the growth of the city, can be achieved if the municipal authorities implement all the enabling conditions for access to services by citizens and we are therefore very enthusiastic about any initiatives in this direction. We are therefore grateful to Telecom Italia – declared Agata Quattrone, Councillor for Sustainable Town Planning, - Mobility and Transport, Smart City of the Municipality of Reggio Calabria - which has chosen to invest in Reggio Calabria, creating the ultra fast network in optic fibre and providing its know-how, as well as the necessary technological support to reactivate the 34 wifi hotspots, thus giving citizens and city users the chance to navigate freely 8 hours a day from the Lungomare Falcomatà seafront or from any of the city's main squares”.
By creating ultrabroadband infrastructure and dedicated solutions for the city of Reggio Calabria, Telecom Italia has confirmed its commitment to innovating at local level and disseminating the services enabled by these solutions, thus contributing to the sustainable growth of the local economy and to improving quality of life for citizens.
Further information on the Telecom Italia network at http://telecomitalia.com/rete
Reggio Calabria, 7 july 2015
