Starting from 2010 Lepida, together with the Region, has built agreements with TLC operators with various purposes. Among these is certainly to be mentioned the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Telecom Italia. Just recently Lepida has signed the fourth edition of the MoU with a three-year extension, after the two-year agreement signed in April 2010, aimed at obtaining an overview of the Digital Divide in the Region and implementing specific initiatives for overcoming it; the three-year one signed in March 2012 to improve the knowledge framework on the Digital Divide in the Region and to develop further specific initiatives aimed at overcoming it; and the three-year one signed in May 2015, aimed at updating the knowledge framework on the penetration of Broadband and Ultra Broadband connection technologies in the Region and developing further specific initiatives for its diffusion and for that of available services.
The new MoU provides for updates on the knowledge frameworks regarding the penetration of connection technologies and TLC services offered by the parties on the territory of Emilia-Romagna; the joint analysis of the criticalities reported by the territories of Emilia-Romagna; the predisposition of answers and their conveyance; the cooperation in the realization of the Observatory on Connectivity in Emilia-Romagna. The MoU makes it possible to analyze infrastructural difficulties in each provincial territory; to have information on infrastructural initiatives planned and ongoing in each provincial territory, to maximize the use of the infrastructures created or under construction; to have information on infrastructural initiatives for the provision of TLC services in each provincial territory, to maximize their use; to share data, useful for populating the Observatory on Connectivity in Emilia-Romagna, a tool that must make available to institutions and citizens, also through detailed maps, information on the real availability of connectivity in the regional territory, as well as provide updates on the state of approval/advancement of infrastructural projects and on the planning of future interventions; to analyze requests for possible infrastructural implementations suggested to reduce infrastructural deficiencies, on the basis of existing reference models and their respective constraints; to build infrastructural synergies among subjects, in the direction of technological neutrality.
The MoU is not exclusive; on the contrary, Lepida and the Region are trying to carry out similar MoUs with all interested Operators. Among the advantanges, the MoU allows to have a single and structured point of reference at the regional level, to support Municipalities in some specific problems that may arise.
