Business and broadband

Telecommunications

FibreConnect, investments and agreements to push fibre among SMEs in the districts

The wholesale company focuses on targeted investments, strategic partnerships and synergies with local players to bring ultra-wideband to SMEs

by Andrea Biondi

8 May 2025

Internet connection with the optical fiber. Concept of fast internet

2' min read

The starting point lies in the approximately 14,000 industrial areas in Italy with a need for fibre that reaches their destination, with guaranteed bandwidth. This is where FibreConnect has decided to play its game in the awareness of the demand from companies within industrial areas that need dedicated, high value-added services.

"We have chosen to invest in industrial areas that, paradoxically, end up being more neglected by the big operators, where low population density discourages the telecommunications bigwigs. In these areas we create capillary networks, in collaboration with local authorities, capable of guaranteeing a stable and high-performance connection even in the presence of complex infrastructural conditions," Salvatore Lombardo, FibreConnect's deputy general manager, who has a long track record as general manager of Infratel, the in-house company of Mimit, charged precisely with promoting the country's ultra-wideband infrastructure, told Sole 24 Ore.

Moreover, the Italian context speaks for itself: according to the Agcom-Polimi Observatory, in September 2024 only 49% of SMEs had access to an FTT network. Yet these companies account for 41% of Italian turnover and a third of the workforce.

FibreConnect defines itself as a wholesale business operator: it does not offer services directly to the end consumer, but works with 93 (so far) local and national Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to make high-performance fibre connections accessible to more than 56 thousand Italian businesses. "According to our plan," Lombard points out, "we should reach 86 thousand in 201 industrial areas by the end of the year," when the company, which was founded in 2022, should reach financial equilibrium.

It is not a revolution, but rather an orderly attempt at evolution. FibreConnect moves with the support of two institutional investors: the Italian fund Azimut Libera Impresa, which holds 55%, and the pan-European fund Marguerite, focused on sustainable infrastructure projects, with 45%. The closing of the transaction that led to the entry of Marguerite took place a few days ago.

The market, on the other hand, is experiencing a phase of transition. The incumbents are involved in restructuring or consolidation operations, while public ambitions - such as the 'Italy 1 Giga' plan financed by the NRP - are struggling to move forward at the desired pace. In this context, Fibreconnect is trying to carve out a space for itself, also offering itself as a technology partner for multi-location companies or those with international requirements. This is the case with the agreement with China Mobile to directly connect offices in Italy and China, an infrastructure designed to facilitate exports and the management of global supply chains.

The real challenge, however, remains national. Italian companies, according to the Digital Transformation Index, are still halfway through: only 28% have started a structured digitisation process. FibreConnect, in its own small way, aims to provide the technological basis to accelerate this transformation. How? Partly by increasing partnerships with multi-utilities, to which Azimut and Marguerite's wholesale company is looking with increasing attention after having, on another front - entered into partnerships with its direct competitors Open Fiber and Fibercop, in order to synergise the sections of network already built.