BUL Project - Ultra Broadband

Municipalities in Trentino are divided into three areas, depending on the characteristics of the area and the interest in investing by private operators. Most municipalities in Trentino fall within the white areas, where private operators do not invest.

In these municipalities, the implementation of a public fibre optic network is entrusted to the BUL (Banda Ultra Larga) project, promoted by the Italian Government with the participation of the Autonomous Province of Trento.

The BUL (Banda Ultra Larga - Ultra Broadband) project was set up to reduce the digital divide (digital divide) of white areas or peripheral areas with respect to urban centres and to guarantee fibre optic connectivity (FTTH or Fiber To The Home), the best available on the market today for speed and stability. In Trentino, Open Fiber is the company which won the Infratel public tender and is working on the implementation of ultra-fast networks, thanks also to the synergy with Trentino Digitale for the use of some infrastructures (cable ducts and network nodes).

Open Fiber's intervention - as the concessionaire identified by tender by Infratel Italia - envisages the coverage with ultra broadband of more than 204,000 housing units in Trentino (number of housing units in white areas) by bringing fibre optics directly into the home (FTTH - Fiber To The Home).

Where this is unfeasible for physical or geographical reasons, a connection is made by means of an antenna to be installed at the home, which connects via radio waves to a signal broadcasting point reached in turn by the optical fibre (FTTA - Fiber To The Antenna, also known as FWA - Fixed Wireless Access).

The new network will remain publicly owned, while Open Fiber will manage and maintain it for 20 years. A large part of Open Fiber's fibre optic network passes through the infrastructure which in recent years Trentino Digitale has set up over a large part of the provincial territory.

The Provincial Council has given the go-ahead to finalise the agreement with the government, under which the Ministry of Economic Development (MiSE) will allocate 47.7 million euro to the white areas with market failure (the valleys and some city suburbs) of Trentino. The new public funding complements the investments that private operators are making in the black areas, in particular the 47.7 million euro from the MiSE is in addition to 25 million euro from the provincial government to carry out a single tender for the construction and wholesale management of the network.

The sites for monitoring the progress of the project are

• at local level, the section dedicated to white areas of Trentino in rete https://www.trentinoinrete.it/Fibra-ottica/Area-bianca
• at national level, the site dedicated to the Strategic Plan Ultra Broadband https://bandaultralarga.italia.it/

At the end of December 2024, the public fibre optic network reached in FTTH mode - (Fibre to the Home) and FWA mode (fixed wireless access) 158 of the 166 Trentino municipalities.

Residents in the connected municipalities can request activation of ultra-fast connectivity by contacting Open Fiber's partner operators to activate the connectivity service.