MILAN (Reuters) – Italy needs to complete a long-delayed project to create a unified network operator as soon as possible to speed up broadband rollout, Innovation Minister Vittorio Colao said on Thursday.
The government has been trying to create a national network by merging Open Fiber, a small broadband operator owned by state lender CDP and utility Enel, with the landline grid assets of former phone monopoly Telecom Italia (TIM).
Such a deal is seen as a way to close Italy’s digital divide with the rest of Europe and avoid a duplication of investment.
But the plan, which TIM and CDP preliminary agreed last year, has not been finalised yet, and the new government led by Mario Draghi has yet to clarify whether it intends to implement it and under what terms.
“We can’t afford to be in a wait-and-see situation which risks threatening the plans and the timing for the broadband rollout, funded by the European recovery plan,” Colao said during a parliamentary hearing.
“We need to reach a solution in order to ensure a speed-up in rollout activities”, the minister, former head of telecoms firm Vodafone, added.
Colao said the funds from the European Next Generation loan scheme allocated to digitalisation would be “significantly” above 40 billion euros ($47.7 billion).
($1 = 0.8382 euros)
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Writing by Maria Pia Quaglia; Editing by Giulia Segreti and Jan Harvey)
