ROME: The Italian government approved a plan to bring its high-speed broadband network into line with European Union targets, but it held back from forcing operators to replace their copper-wire networks with fiber-optic cable.
Italy faces growing pressure to strengthen its telecommunications infrastructure and digital sector to help improve the performance of an economy that has been in virtual stagnation for two decades.
We are creating a plan to give our country the digital infrastructure, the digital highways like any other European country,” Industry Minister Federica Guidi told reporters.
The European Commission ranks Italy near the bottom of the 28-member EU in terms of digital economy and online services. A recent report showed that almost a third of the population (31 percent) had never used the Internet.
Although basic fixed broadband is available almost everywhere, only 51 percent of households are subscribers — the lowest level in the EU — and only 21 percent of households have access to faster, next-generation networks.
The EU’s digital agenda calls for member states to ensure by 2020 that all households have access to internet lines with download speeds above 30 megabits per second and half have access to super-fast 100-megabit connections.
The Italian government has pledged 6 billion euros ($6.71 billion) to build up the networks, which it hopes to boost with private investment from telecoms operators. Guidi said if all worked well, 100-megabit coverage could reach up to 85 percent of households.
The Sun Journal reports that prosecutors say between 2006 and 2008 Knowlton claimed his wife’s parents’ house in New Hampshire as his legal residence.