Fastweb boosts the quality of its wireline network extending it also to mobile. Creation of a 5G Ready network underway

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Press release 13/01/2017
Fastweb boosts the quality of its wireline network, making 1 Gigabit connectivity available on its Fiber to the Home network. The service, already available in Milan, will be progressively extended in other 29 cities starting in 2017. Fastweb will launch in January the new FastGate router, which will allow 1 Gigabit internet surfing also through Wi-Fi. Furthermore Fastweb will extend the quality of its wireline network to the mobile environment, thanks to the deployment of a 5G ready network based on small cells.
  • Download speeds up to 1 Gigabit on Fiber to the Home network already available in Milan and in 29 more Italian cities starting in 2017
  • New FastGate modem available from January, the first allowing 1 Gigabit surfing also in Wi-Fi
  • WOW Fi, the largest Wi-Fi community already available in over 800 Italian municipalities
  • 4G and 4Gplus for Fastweb Mobile customers
  • Creation of a 5G Ready network underway based on small cells

 

Milan, December 6, 2016 - Fastweb boosts the quality of its wireline network, making 1 Gigabit connectivity available on its Fiber to the Home network. The service, already available in Milan, will be progressively extended in other 29 cities starting in 2017. Fastweb will launch in January the new FastGate router, which will allow 1 Gigabit internet surfing also through Wi-Fi. Furthermore Fastweb will extend the quality of its wireline network to the mobile environment, thanks to the deployment of a 5G ready network based on small cells.

Since its foundation, Fastweb has garnered attention for innovating wireline Internet access services in Italy and for offering customers the best connectivity available.  It was the first operator to launch Fiber to the Home technology in Italy back in 2000, the first to launch 100 Mbps in 2010 and the first in Europe to launch 200 Mbps with Vplus technology in 2016. Fastweb has leveraged its superior fiber network infrastructure to grow and offer high quality services both to the Consumer and Business segments.

Today, Fastweb activates in Milan its first customers with speeds of up to 1 Gigabit on its Fiber to the Home technology. After Milan, 1 Gigabit Internet access services will be launched in 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. By 2020, thanks also to Flash Fiber, the joint venture created together with Tim, Fastweb Fiber to the Home footprint will cover 5 million households.

Fastweb has also decided to extend its ultra-broadband network to industrial districts and mid-size cities, so to cover 8 million households and businesses by 2020 with its Fiber to the Cabinet network, reaching download speeds up to 200 Mbps.  By 2020, Fastweb ultra broadband network (FTTH and FTTC) will altogether be available to 13 million households and businesses (approx. 50% of the population) vs the existing 7.5 million at the end of 2016 (30% of the national coverage).

In order to allow customers to enjoy the best possible quality and performances of the network, Fastweb has developed the most powerful router on the market.  FastGate, entirely configurable through an app, allows surfing at 1 Gigabit also through Wi-Fi and will be available to all new customers starting in January.

Along with the wireline network, Fastweb continues to develop also WOW FI, the shared Wi-Fi based on the customer’s community. To date, approx. 1.5 million customers have been enabled to utilise the service, included in the home subscription, in over 800 municipalities. It is the largest Wi-Fi community in Italy. Thanks to WOW FI, Fastweb customers are able to surf through Wi-Fi also outside their home without using their mobile data allowance.

Fastweb plans to offer its customers increasingly convergent services, extending the high quality of its wireline network to the mobile environment. To this end, on top of launching 4G and 4Gplus services thanks to the agreement with TIM, Fastweb will deploy a 5G-ready mobile network based on small cells.

Fastweb is today a Full Mvno operator and from January will offer its customers 4G and 4Gplus service, improving at the same time the quality of the connectivity and the coverage of the network. In fact, the new service, available from January, will allow 4G surfing up to 100 Mbps in 6,600 municipalities (approx. 96% of the population) and up to 300 Mbps in download in 400 municipalities, of which 144 large cities thanks to 4Gplus. The switch to 4G will be completely free of charge for Fastweb mobile customers, who can already order the new SIM’s within the customer area of the institutional website fastweb.it.

Fastweb will also start deploying a 5G-Ready network. Fastweb will develop an infrastructure to reach the major Italian cities by 2020 with small cells technology.

“With the deployment of 5G Ready technology, Fastweb today achieves a further technological leap” said Alberto Calcagno, Chief Executive Officer of Fastweb. “Thanks to 5G and the fiber network, Fastweb will offer the best possible Internet access service at home and outdoor. The 5G is based on a hybrid fixed/mobile infrastructure and Fastweb is the operator which has the necessary three ingredients to quickly develop the new network: the fiber, over 20 thousand cabinets that will become 50 thousand in 2020 which are already prepared to host the small cells, and the 3.5 Ghz frequencies.  We will proceed quickly to provide 5G Ready connectivity in the major cities by 2020”.