Vodafone Italy pledges to launch LTE in 100 new towns every month

Vodafone Italy has announced that, with immediate effect, it will start deploying 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in 100 new municipalities every month, enabling it to cover 90% of the Italian population by 2016. At present, the cellco boasts coverage of more than 300 municipalities and tourist areas; this figure will rise to 1,000 by year-end and 1,500 by March 2015. As part of its EUR3.6 billion (USD4.9 billion) investment programme Vodafone will also extend its 3.5G HSPA+ network to 95% of the population within two years, and deploy fibre-optic infrastructure to around seven million households.