Italian province of Trento goes Wi-Fi

The province of Trento is the southern part of the historic Trentino region whose history dates back to the mid-stone age. Being an autonomous province, the local administration has to fend for itself. The terrain is mountaneous which doesnot offer a great scope for wired network deployment. Therefore, its no wonder that DSL penetration is lower in this area in comparison to the national average of Italy. The economy of this province depends on primarily on agriculture and tourism. Lower spending capability in communication services and a difficult terrain are probably the chief reasons for the lack of adequate communication infrastucture in this region.

Not any more. The public administration has decided to deploy wi-fi to provide municipalities, businesses and residential users access to internet and voice services with wireless broadband access. Alcatel-Lucent along with a consortium of sub contractors will deploy 1600o wi-fi access points in one of its largest deployments in Europe. If successful, voice over wi-fi will be rigorously tested in this province as some parts will have no alternative access route as DSL isn't widely deployed. The province has a optical backbone that the Wi-Fi network can leverage. However, the rollout of the solution will take time. Until then we'll have to wait for the outcome....