FASTWEB is Italy's second largest fixed telecommunications provider and the first player worldwide to develop an all IP network for Quadruple play service delivery. Currently FASTWEB operates in more than 150 Italian cities with a network of more than 27,000 km. FASTWEB uses a unique technological model combining the extensive use of the Internet Protocol (IP) for voice, data and video transmission both via FTTH and xDSL technology. Totalling more than 1.5 million clients, the company provides customers with a wide range of convergent services (voice - fixed and mobile - data and television). FASTWEB's fibre to the home (FTTH) network is the most extensive in Europe.

GE's Smallworld technology has been used by FASTWEB to roll out its FTTH network throughout Italy for nearly a decade and enables FASTWEB to design, engineer and install its broadband more efficiently and reliably. It uses real-world data to plan and engineer physical network routing, hub locations and interfaces with external sources. "The Smallworld system was chosen over other GIS systems for its capability to manage the complexity and volume of our fibre network infrastructure and provide access to this information across many departments," Tommaso Speroni, Manager of OSS Technology explained, "It is able to integrate all our network data in one centralised system to support business processes for the design, creation and maintenance of the FTTH network". The technology has proven its worth to FASTWEB by improving the residential network planning process and minimizing the time it takes to define the network and serviceable addresses. "FASTWEB is the first Telecommunications Operator in Europe to have offered connections on optical fibre to residential customers and GE's Smallworld GIS has played a key role in managing this rapid network rollout," said Martin Ansell, General Manager GE Smallworld. "We continue to provide FASTWEB with new features and functions within upgrades of Smallworld Physical Network Inventory to support their developing needs."

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