Italy to shift into Internet fast lane

MILAN: Italy´s government adopted a six-billion-euro plan Tuesday to modernise its Internet network and improve access to broadband in hopes of shedding its reputation as one of Europe´s online laggards.
The plan that the government´s economic development minister labelled a “digital revolution” aims to boost broadband access by 2020 in compliance with European Union objectives.
A report published last year by the US consultancy Akamai found that Italy came 48th among countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions in terms of Internet speed and labelled it the slowest in the European Union.
Under EU objectives, all citizens would have access to an Internet network with a capacity of 30 megabits per second by 2020, while at least half of households would have access to 100-megabit networks.