The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted €350 million ($363m) in funding to the Italian telecoms infrastructure company Infrastructure Wireless Italiane (Inwit).

The money will help support Inwit's plans to digitalize connectivity in Italy, especially in rural areas.

According to Inwit, the funding will allow the company to develop and implement macro-grid telecommunications infrastructure, which includes raw land and rooftop towers.

The company said this will help drive 5G and fixed wireless access (FWA) connections for mobile carriers.

On top of this, Inwit noted that investments are also planned for micro-grid infrastructure, both outdoors (small cells) and indoors with multi-operator DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems) coverage. The latter aims to "improve mobile connectivity in locations such as hospitals, museums, shopping centers, underground lines, and motorway tunnels," adds Inwit.

Inwit operates around 25,000 towers and micro-grids, including 600 DAS rooftop sites in Italy.

“This partnership represents further recognition of our business model and the strategic value of our investment plan in digital and shared infrastructure, which drives economic and industrial efficiency across the value chain for the benefit of our customers," said Diego Galli, general manager of Inwit.

"This agreement further strengthens the already solid and long-standing cooperation between INWIT and the EIB."

In December, Telecom Italia (TIM) sold its remaining stake in tower operator Inwit for €250 million ($259m) to French private equity firm Ardian SAS.