The Italian government, municipal authorities and some of the country’s largest telcos have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to speed up the deployment of fibre and 5G infrastructure. The agreement involves the Department for Digital Transformation, the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI), Infratel Italia and operators Telecom Italia (TIM), Vodafone, INWIT and Open Fiber.

The MoU aims to accelerate rollouts under the Italia 1 Giga and Italia 5G projects, which are part of the wider National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). The government wants municipal authorities and telcos to work more closely together to reduce the time taken to secure rollout permits and to standardise application procedures. The MoU will remain in force until 30 June 2026.

Italy24 cites Alessio Butti, Undersecretary for Innovation, as saying: ‘The objective of the memorandum of understanding is to create the conditions necessary for the diffusion of ultra-fast networks and 5G throughout the national territory through operational agreements between municipalities and operators. By signing the agreement, the operators will guarantee municipal administrations timely information on times and methods of intervention, the possibility of activating preventive collaboration mechanisms and compatibly with the PNRR milestones, giving priority to the infrastructures of their territory.’