Nowadays it is becoming more and more common for people, businesses and public administration to use the internet as a means of exchanging information and data and accessing services; for this reason telecommunications infrastructure providing widespread broadband that can keep up with the population's data transfer requirements is essential. Consequently, Regione Veneto is promoting and financing priority projects in areas which are still not provided for, i.e. mainly mountain, rural and outlying areas.
In 2009, 95% of residents in Veneto had access to broadband services and there were almost 17,500 km of telematic infrastructure in the region, most of which was to be found along the Verona-Venezia and Rovigo-Treviso axes. The networks also spread into the provinces, and outlying areas are not left wanting. Of these 17,500 km of infrastructure, more than 10,200 km are fibre optic networks and the remainder are radio links. The backbone networks extend to over 15,800 km; in the cities, MANs (Metropolitan Area Networks) extend to 1,650 km.
There are 12 telecommunications providers operating in the region: 4 of them are local, 6 national and 2 international. The national providers own 92% of the network.
In line with the national plan for 2009, Regione Veneto set up an agreement with the Communications Department of the Ministry for Economic Development to put into action work on infrastructure aimed at bringing transport networks up to speed in order to overcome the digital divide affecting some local areas. The projects will take place in two stages; the first stage will involve the creation of 420 km of backhauling infrastructure networks; the second stage consists in the creation of another 413 km of backhauling infrastructure networks that will cover the whole of the region.
(Chapter 16 in figures)