An updated snapshot of the level of digital development of the Italian Regions to assist them in spreading the culture of innovation in their areas, encouraging the growth of a more informed demand for next-generation services among citizens and businesses. This is the objective of TIM’s annual "Italia Connessa” report presented today in Rome in its fourth edition.
The survey gave important confirmation of the infrastructure level of the country in terms of untrabroadband, whereby our country is undergoing strong acceleration, recording in 2014 an increase in the coverage of fixed NGN (Next Generation Network) by 16 percentage points and in the LTE mobile network by 38 percentage points over the previous year. In terms of increase in ultrabroadband network coverage Italy has been recognized top performer in comparison with the main European countries.
The Central and Southern regions of the country have reached coverage levels above the national average: Calabria is in the lead with 80% of homes reached by NGN fixed networks, followed by Campania (70%) and Lazio (53%) at September 2015. These figures confirm the efficacy of the partnership model between public and private sectors achieved by Telecom Italia in the South, where the company has been awarded all the tenders issued by the Ministry for Economic Development.
Overall the report, along with the signs of dynamism coming from the plans and action of the Government and the European Union, highlights prospects of recovery for Italy in the digital rankings.
It is, however, necessary to continue developing a more widespread demand from citizens and businesses
for digital services, particularly public ones: from schools, to e-government, from healthcare to smart city solutions.
This year the TIM "Italia Connessa 2015" report defined and measured 90 indicators on which the snapshot of the Regions' digital status was based.
For the first time the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI ), used by the European Union to measure the level of digitisation of the 28 countries, has been applied on a regional level, making it possible to analyse each region according to 32 indicators aggregated into 5 subdimensions: the level of connectivity, digital skills, the use of the Internet, the integration of digital technologies, the development of digital public services. This made it possible to represent the state of digitisation of each Italian Region drawing up a ranking based on both the individual indicators and the overall 5 subdimensions.
The findings of the new "Italia Connessa" report were illustrated by Roberto Opilio, Head of Operations at Telecom Italia I TIM and by Simone Battiferri Head of Business at Telecom Italia I TIM.
The round table discussion - moderated by François de Brabant, Senior Advisor Ernst & Young - was also attended by Antonio Samaritani, Head of Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale (the Agency for Digital Italy); Elio Catania, President of Confindustria Digitale; Laura Castellani, Chief Information Officer, Tuscany Region; Valeria Fascione, Councillor for Innovation, Campania Region; Simone Puksic, Chairman of Insiel, Friuli Venezia Giulia Region; Raffaele Donini, Councillor for Transport, Infrastructure and Digital Agenda, Emilia Romagna Region; Matthew Francesconi, Councillor for Innovation of the Municipality of Capannori and Alessandro Luciano, President of Fondazione Ugo Bordoni.
Considering the whole scope of analysis of the DESI, Emilia Romagna, Lombardy and Lazio stand out, leading the ranking and being the closest to the European average.
Moreover, the gap between the regions of the North and Lazio on the one hand, with values higher than the national average, and the regions of Southern Italy, on the other, which are in the lowest part of the ranking, persists.
Marco Patuano, CEO of the Telecom Italia Group, said, "An increasingly digital country is a country that is growing and our investments prove it. In Italy the 2015-2017 Business Plan foresees 10 billion euros, 5 billion of which solely for innovative development, thus confirming the leading role of Telecom Italia in connecting the entire country with the best fixed and mobile ultrabroadband infrastructure. We have achieved coverage of properties that exceeds 41% with fibre optics and more than 87% of the population with LTE technology. We want to continue along this path - added Patuano - by also strengthening the new generation network coverage plan in the market failure areas, extending it to another 1,146 municipalities not initially included. We will continue together with the Regions and local authorities according to the virtuous partnership model between public and private sectors already achieved in the Central and Southern Regions, where we have invested 750 million euros to give strong impetus to the digitisation process”.
During the day, the Municipality of Chiari was declared the winner of TIM's "Italia Connessa – Comuni Connessi" Contest organised last June to promote the culture of innovation in local authorities, involving over 130 medium sized Italian municipalities with populations of between 14,000 and 51,000 inhabitants.
The Municipality of Chiari, in the province of Brescia, was chosen by an independent Advisory Board
made up of prominent figures in the world of innovation, and won because it submitted the best
local digital development plan. In the territory of the Municipality of Chiari TIM will create
fixed and mobile ultrabroadband infrastructure by 2016, ahead of the schedule in its development plans.
TIM has nevertheless recognized the validity of the projects submitted by the other two finalists municipalities, Narni (in the province of Terni) and San Miniato (near Pisa) for which the company has committed to build the next-generation network infrastructure by 2017.
The members of the jury were: Antonio Samaritani (Head of AGID), Paolo Barberis (Councillor for Innovation to the Prime Minister), Roberto Loiola (CEO Alcatel-Lucent Italia), Alessandro Luciano (President of Fondazione Ugo Bordoni), Stefano Parisi (Founder and Chairman of Chili), Francesco Profumo (Chairman of the Iren Group); Myrta Merlino (journalist).
The 2015 “Italia Connessa” report can be viewed on the website http://italiaconnessa.telecomitalia.com
Rome, 18 December 2015