Here are the first (not very Chinese) messages from Colao on digital and 5G
What Vittorio Colao, Minister for Technological Innovation and Digital Transition, said at the hearing on the single network and 5G
The synthesis of the strategy of the Minister of Innovation Vittorio Colao is based “on three fixed points: digital as a guarantee of opportunities, inclusion and territorial cohesion; as a new way of working, doing business, and being a full citizen; as a competitive industrial and geostrategic strategy, clearly European and Atlantic ".
This was underlined by Colao to the joint commissions of the Chamber of Transport and Budget, Public Works and EU Policies of the Senate as part of the examination of the Proposal for a national recovery and resilience plan.
An emphasis – the “European and Atlantic” strategy – in the wake of the approach of the Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, evident in the programmatic speech to the Chambers, and which does not sound like a good morning for the Chinese groups active in Italy.
Here is in detail what the Minister of Innovation Vittorio Colao also said
WHAT COLAO SAID IN HEARING
All connected "by 2026". Vittorio Colao, the new minister for technological innovation and digital transition, is an ambitious promise. At the hearing at the joint commissions for Budget, Public Works, EU Policies and Transport of the Senate on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Colao presented his plan to bridge the gap with other EU countries: the focus is on the single network, with the Minister which hopes to "be able to unlock the situation quickly", and on 5G. All the details.
INVESTMENTS
Let's start with investments. On the plate, to recover the gap with Europe, there are up to 40 billion, coming from the Next Generation Eu plan. “The digital transition is a priority of government action,” Colao said at the hearing. "The Next Generation Eu plan provides that at least 20% of investments will be destined for the digital transition, which in the case of Italy translates into about 40 billion: but for our country the figure will be considerably higher, and will involve critical infrastructures, digital health and digital skills. A figure that will have to be used having clear objectives, so how to do it, in what times, favoring efficiency and eliminating waste ”, added the Minister.
DIGITAL COMPASS TO 2026
“If we want to recover and return to being a leader in Europe we must work on a digital modernization of the country as a whole, setting ourselves ambitious goals. So if the Digital Compass has the goal of reaching full digitization by 2030, Italy wants to achieve this vision already in 2026 ”, promised Colao.
ALL CONNECTED TO 2026
And for 2026, Colao also promises the connection of the entire peninsula and islands.
The goal is “to connect everyone by 2026 with very high-speed connections, leaving operators the freedom to choose which connections to aim for”.
THE BROADBAND GOVERNMENT PLAN
Broadband will be crucial in this plan. “The ultra-broadband – explained Colao – is an essential intervention for the modernization of the country and social cohesion. Delays are no longer allowed ".
TOWARDS THE SINGLE NETWORK
And precisely with the aim of accelerating, Colao hopes to quickly untie the knot of the single network.
On the single network, I hope that "a solution will be reached as soon as possible that will allow the resumption of infrastructure: we can no longer afford to wait", said the Minister, adding: "I do not want to enter into matters concerning private companies , or in any case listed, which have their own boards of directors, and nor in the corporate structures. But what we will certainly do with the Minister of the Economy and with the Minister Giorgetti is that we want to make sure that this situation does not lead to an inefficiency in the allocation of the money we will have to carry out the cabling or 5G. I really care about this ”.
INVESTMENTS IN MARKET FAILURE AREAS
And for this reason the minister is planning "measures that make the installation of infrastructures easier, from adequate investment guarantees in certain times for the State and from stimuli for the effective adoption of services by families and businesses" and "measures simplification and revision of the regulatory framework, aimed at speeding up the procedures ".
Colao also announced investments in so-called “market failure” areas and “more suitable measures to support demand”.
5G AND PLAN B
Together with the various measures, the government has also devised a plan B, an alternative to the single network. "We also work, of course – Colao pointed out – on 'plans B', an alternative is to push a lot on 5G, and encourage aggregations of other technical commercial forms that allow us to overcome the impasse, I strongly believe in the public-private formulation, but however, we must do the interest of the Italians ”.
And 5G is the ideal technology to bring the fast connection where the fiber cannot reach. "We are firmly convinced that the principle to be applied is that of full technological neutrality, able to guarantee the maximum possible coverage regardless of the fixed or mobile technology used, stimulating the use of the most advanced technologies, in our case 5G, to get where the fiber cannot arrive or would arrive too long, and we want to leave operators the full choice in the technology to be used, continuing to guarantee citizens the free choice between competitive offers on the market ”.
THE NUMBERS OF DIGITAL ITALY
What is certain is that Colao's undertaking is not easy. Italy, on the digital front, is struggling a lot. "In 2020 there are 10 million Italian families, 39% of the total, who have not activated Internet access offers on the fixed network and over 5.5 million families, 21% of the total, who use Internet services on fixed network but with a speed of less than 30 Mbps – underlined the Minister – In total, about 16 million families, 60% of the total, who do not use fixed network Internet services or do not have a fixed ultra-broadband connection " , the Minister said.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/tutti-i-messaggini-poco-cinesi-di-colao-su-digitale-e-5g/ on Thu, 18 Mar 2021 15:28:23 +0000.