The ambitious tenders cover the deployment of 5G sites in 2,000 areas of the country
Infratel, an agency within Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development, has issued two tenders collectively worth €2 billion to construct 5G networks in areas where operators will not deploy them, as they are not commercially viable in the short to medium term.
The tenders cover the deployment of 5G sites in 2,000 areas of Italy and for building out the optical transport network needed to interconnect 10,000 mobile sites.
Infratel believes the funds available will cover 90% of the total cost of the expected rollouts.
Tight deadlines
Interested parties can submit bids individually or in partnerships, but must do so by 27 April and the build must be completed by 2026.
This is the first national public intervention to incentivise the construction of 5G in areas where it is not commercially viable to deploy them.
The networks financed by this scheme will be subject to obligations defined by the Authority for communications guarantees (Agcom).
The €2 billion tenders are in addition to the €3.7 billion allocated for the 1Giga initiative for Italy, and about €600 million to connect schools, hospitals and health facilities plus more than €45 million to reach the smaller islands, provided for by the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience for 2022.
To find out more, see this announcement (in Italian).