Italy wants a stronger national telecoms network, said Innovation Minister Vittorio Colao on Saturday, adding that combining Telecom Italia and Open Fiber assets could achieve this as long as competition in the sector is maintained.
“What we want is a national telecoms infrastructure that guarantees high performance and quality,” Colao told reporters on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti business forum.
“If this happens by combining parts of Telecom (Italia) with Open Fiber, that’s fine as long as competition is maintained,” Colao added.
In May, the Italian state lender CDP, which owns Open Fiber, signed a preliminary agreement with TIM to create a unified wholesale network operator under state control by combining TIM’s fixed network infrastructure with that of Open Fiber.
According to two people familiar with the situation, CDP is expected to submit a non-binding offer for TIM’s network later this month.
