Italian service provider Fastweb says that it now offers gigabit broadband in Milan via its fiber to the home (FTTH) network. The company plans to roll out the gigabit FTTH service to 29 other cities, with most roll outs beginning in 2017.
To complement the gigabit broadband service Fastweb says it will offer a new home router, dubbed FastGate, that will enable 1-Gbps in-home Wi-Fi. Fastweb says it plans to begin making the router available in January.
The 29 cities on the gigabit broadband target list include: Turin and Bologna, and starting from 2017 in the cities of Ancona, Bari, Bergamo, Brescia, Catania, Florence, Genoa, Messina, Modena, Monza, Naples, Rome, Padua, Palermo, Parma, Prato, Perugia, Pescara, Reggio Calabria, Reggio Emilia, Salerno, Siena, Trento, Trieste, Venice, Verona, and Vicenza. Thanks to its Flash Fiber joint venture with TIM, Fastweb expects to pass 5 million households by 2020 (see "FTTH in Italy benefits from carrier tie-ups").
The service provider also says it plans to pass an additional 8 million households and businesses in industrial districts and mid-size cities by 2020 with its fiber to the cabinet network. That network will support downstream speeds of up to 200 Mbps.
The combined 13 million customers passed the company expects to reach by 2020 via either FTTH or FTTC compares to the present number of 7.5 million.
Meanwhile, Fastweb also announced plans to create a 5G-ready mobile network based on small cells.
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