Italian fiber firm Open Fiber is planning to move into Edge data centers.
Open Fiber (formerly Enel Open Fiber) is an Italian wholesale telecommunications company.
In an interview this week with CorCom, Andrea Lazzaroli, operational marketing business market manager at Open Fiber, said the company will be deploying Edge data centers along its network.
“With the introduction of Edge data centers, Open Fiber aims to further facilitate digital transformation, also connecting the sites where data can be processed to its infrastructure,” he said.
“The first Edge data centers will be built in the second half of 2024 and, in the following months, we will proceed to create a level of regional Edge data centers connected to each other and to the large centralized data centers.”
Details on the total number, precise locations, or specifications of the data centers were not shared.
During this week’s Data Center Nation event in Italy, Lazzaroli added: “We have built highways to transport high-performance data. What we are adding today is the creation of sites along these highways where we host Edge Data Centers: this means that we will be able to do data storage within these sites and do local processing of the sites at the regional level and also from the perspective of the provinces and municipalities.”
Open Fiber is 60 percent owned by CDP Equity (part of the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti sovereign wealth fund) and 40 percent by Macquarie Asset Management.
The company was established in December 2015 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Italian energy company Enel. The following year the company acquired fiber from Metroweb from F2i SGR and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, with the latter’s CDP unit acquiring a 50 percent stake in Open Fiber.
Enel divested its 50 percent stake in Open Fiber to Macquarie and CDP in 2022.
CPD reportedly aims to merge Open Fiber with Telecom Italia’s fixed network assets.
Despite previously divesting its own fiber firm, Enel recently acquired Italian ISP Melita Italia.
Italy's large data centers are currently centered around Milan, with some in development around Rome. Italian broadcaster RAI is planning its own Edge data center roll-out across Italy.
