A new company has been created, to hold TIM’s access network and pave the way for the integration of OpenFiber.
TIM agrees to the spin-off: Discussions about the creation of a single national fixed network have been ongoing in Italy for quite some time, based around security considerations and on the need to accelerate the development of gigabit broadband in the country. On 31 August 2020, the board of directors of Telecom Italia (TIM) approved the agreement with the US venture KKR Infrastructure and with Fastweb for the establishment of FiberCop. The new company will hold TIM’s access network, alongside the fibre network developed by Flash Fibre (the joint venture in which TIM and Fastweb have 80% and 20% stakes, respectively). This is the first step for the creation of a single national network in Italy, in which FiberCop will be integrated at a later stage. TIM’s board authorised the CEO to sign the agreement with the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), the Italian state-owned investment bank which will oversee the setting up of the single network.
OpenFiber will be involved at a later stage: The CDP also has a 50% share in OpenFiber, Italy’s wholesale-only fibre network which aims to cover 270 cities and 7600 municipalities by 2023. It is foreseen that OpenFibre will eventually come under FiberCop; however, the CDP needs to reach an agreement with energy provider ENEL, which holds the remaining 50% of the company.
Regulatory hurdles could still get in the way: TIM will hold a 50.1% stake in FiberCop, but has agreed to governance mechanisms which will make FiberCop independent. Nonetheless, it is hard to predict whether FiberCop will obtain regulatory approval swiftly. Both the communications regulator AGCOM and the competition authority, the AGCM, have been silent on the issue so far, and may seek strong commitments from the relevant stakeholders to mitigate issues caused by vertical integration.
