Wind Italy and Vodafone Italy (LSE: VOD.L) on Monday signed separate wholesale service agreements with Metroweb in which they will leverage its Fiber to the Home (FTTH) network in Milan to provide broadband services to consumers and businesses.
These deals reflect the pressing time to market need to get services up and running quickly. With these agreements in place, the two service providers could start offering 1 Gbps FTTH services to subscribers beginning in December.
While the bulk of Metroweb's 5,100 km network is centered in Milan, its importance lies in its multiple interconnection points. The network connects to five of Italy's major cities: Bologna, Turin, Verona, Vicenza and Genoa.
Metroweb has ambitious plans for FTTH. In March, the service provider said it planned to spend €4.5 billion ($5.9 billion) on a FTTH network that would reach 30 major cities in Italy by 2015.
At the same time that Metroweb is expanding its FTTH network, it has also signed an agreement with Telecom Italia (NYSE: TI) to build out a Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC) network to 138 cities.
In November, Metroweb's competitor FastWeb acquired an 11.1 percent stake in the company.
For more:
- TeleGeography has this article
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