{"id":457114,"date":"2026-06-17T15:09:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/06\/17\/fibra-ottica-amministrazioni-digitali-e-competenze-in-italia-permangono-debolezze-strutturali\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T16:12:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T14:12:46","slug":"fibre-optics-digital-government-and-skills-structural-weaknesses-persist-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/06\/17\/fibre-optics-digital-government-and-skills-structural-weaknesses-persist-in-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Fibre optics, digital government and skills: “structural weaknesses” persist in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Digital transformation, telecommunications, and innovation: Italy<\/strong> stands out for its industrial prowess and its ability to transform the national economy, but it is unable to overcome the \u201cpersistent structural weaknesses\u201d that continue to characterise the country\u2019s economic system. The European Commission\u2019s assessment is a mixed one, as outlined in the latest edition <\/a>of the<\/strong> report on the State of the Digital Decade<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>. Thus, alongside genuine and recognised progress, there are setbacks that the country is still unable to make up for.<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

Overall, the situation in Italy is noteworthy. The European Commission notes that <\/strong>Italy “has made significant progress in digitalisation, particularly in the roll-out of fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP)<\/strong>, the digitalisation of public administrations, and the adoption of cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and data analytics”.<\/span><\/span> This is likely also due to the National Recovery Plan (NRRP), which has earmarked over \u20ac24 billion for digital transformation<\/strong>.<\/span> <\/p>\n

Furthermore, the country boasts <\/strong>\u201csolid industrial and research foundations<\/strong>,\u201d and in the field of technological development for communications, \u201cit possesses resources in strategic technologies, in particular semiconductors, high-performance computing and quantum technology.\u201d<\/span><\/span> As for digital services, in Italy they are \u201cwell developed, including advanced digital identity and digital healthcare.\u201d<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

In short, Italy so far seems to have passed with flying colours in its efforts to transform and innovate the country. However, this otherwise positive assessment is “tainted” by the limitations that still remain. \u201cAmong the persistent structural weaknesses<\/strong>,\u201d notes the European Commission, \u201care poor fibre-optic coverage in rural areas, a level of basic digital skills below the EU average, and a shortage of specialists<\/strong> in information and communications technology.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, while fibre-optic networks are well developed in cities, this is not the case in smaller towns; and when a new and innovative service is offered, it is not accessible to everyone, with many users at risk of ending up with something they do not know how to use or get the most out of.<\/p>\n

Recommendations for Italy<\/h4>\n

Hence, this list of recommendations for Italy aimed to overcome the obstacles preventing the country from making a genuine leap in quality. First and foremost, it emphasises the need to \u201csupport the roll-out of fibre-optic infrastructure to homes across the country<\/strong> and combine infrastructure support with measures to incentivise the use of the network and the radio spectrum”. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Secondly, there is a call to promote a new technological culture. This involves \u201cbridging<\/span><\/span> the gap in basic digital skills, stepping up efforts towards upskilling and reskilling<\/strong>, and intensifying measures to increase women\u2019s participation in information technology studies.\u201d In effect, this calls for a reform of schools and universities: in Italy, \u201cthe <\/strong>education system is not yet able to meet demand<\/strong> and women remain under-represented in the ICT sectors.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To achieve even greater progress, the government, local authorities, and businesses are also urged to work together in order to \u201cstrengthen the quantum ecosystem by supporting the development and industrial adoption of quantum hardware and by consolidating links between industry and academia.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Commission\u2019s report highlights both the positives and negatives of a national system in which progress has been made and is “significant”, but where, at the same time, delays and structural limitations are far from being overcome<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":457074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25710],"tags":[26180,32650,29310,32157,26698,34114,26432,33394],"class_list":["post-457114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-net-tech-en","tag-agenda-digitale","tag-digitization-en","tag-fibra-ottica-en","tag-innovation-en","tag-internet-veloce","tag-telecommunications-en","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":457115,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457114\/revisions\/457115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}