Tiscali and Enel Open Fiber (EOF) have kicked off their fibre broadband partnership in Tiscali’s home market of Sardinia. Under a deal announced in March this year, EOF has agreed to lease capacity on its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks to Tiscali. EOF has begun its deployments in Cagliari, with 80% of the city to be covered by March 2018. The agreement for the city of Cagliari provides for the migration of 20,000 Tiscali ADSL customers to EOF fibre-optics by that date.
Separately, the Italian government has unveiled plans to launch the third and final tender to find a telco to deploy broadband infrastructure in underserved areas of the country. The regional auction process will begin before the end of the year, according to the state’s broadband networks vehicle Infratel, though the final sale will be divided into two phases. The first of Infratel’s network tenders has already brought controversy, with both Fastweb and Telecom Italia (TIM) planning legal challenges against the way the process is being conducted. The government is investing a total of EUR2.6 billion (USD2.95 billion) to roll out fibre infrastructure to cover poorly served areas of Italy to meet EU Digital Agenda targets by 2020.