TIM DATA CENTRES AND FIXED NETWORKS UPGRADE

The project concerns the construction and modernisation of several data centres located in Milan and Turin as well as one in Greece. At the same time, the national optical transmission and IP (Internet Protocol) backbone will also be modernised in order to cope with the heavily growing traffic generated by data centres as well as the fixed and mobile access networks. The project implementation is planned for the years 2020 to 2023.

The objective of the project is to improve the resilience and throughput of the national transport and optical core network to cope with traffic growth and new cloud services. The project also aims to deliver an innovative and secure public, private and hybrid cloud offering, while ensuring the sovereignty over the data managed in compliance with European data security regulations (e.g. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)).

The project contributes to the policy objectives of Innovation and Digitalisation. It concerns investments in backbone telecommunication infrastructure and the modernization and construction of data centers. Investments in innovative telecommunications infrastructure face an uncertain business model due to significant investment costs in front of uncertain revenue flows, which leads to delayed availability of services with significant economic costs for the consumers. The project will accelerate the deployment of innovative telecommunication technologies and thus generate positive network externalities by enabling more users to benefit from improved and faster access to information and innovative digital services. The project also generates further externalities to other sectors of the economy by supporting innovation and competitiveness. These benefits are not fully captured by the project revenues. The promoter is experienced in the design and operation of telecommunication networks and data centers. The promoter has an experienced management team and in-depth understanding of market needs and drivers, which will support project implementation, results delivery and address the market failures. 
The EIB contribution resides in the diversification, flexibility and positive signaling effect from the financing of thematic projects.

Investments for the construction of data centres might fall under the Annexes of Directive 2014/52/EU amending the EIA Directive 2011/92/EU. The project represents a mixture of greenfield deployments and upgrades of existing facilities. The appropriate level of required environmental approvals will be assessed for the different cases during the project appraisal stage.

The Promoter is a public company operating in the telecom sector, which is exempted from public procurement requirements. The procedures applied will be verified in detail during the project appraisal.