Telecom Italia should bury the hatchet and work with rivals to roll out a nationwide next-generation fiber network, the Italian regulator said yesterday.
AGCOM wants to see the incumbent team up with FastWeb, Vodafone, and Wind, which have formed a consortium to launch their own high-speed broadband network, claiming the move is necessary to help Italy catch-up with other European countries where upgrades are already underway.
Chairman Corrado Calabro said collaboration is necessary to ensure smooth deployment of super-fast broadband networks under guidelines set out by AGCOM and Italy’s government, during a presentation to parliament yesterday, WSJ.com reports.
Calabro said “fast intervention” is required to prevent the collapse of mobile networks, and that Italy should become a “fiber nation,” according to Bloomberg.
The speech backs up calls from FastWeb, Wind and Vodafone for Italy’s government to create a single company to oversee fiber deployment in the country, made when they unveiled a five-year, €2.5 billion, plan to deploy high-speed broadband in 15 cities in May.
Telecom Italia has declined invitations to join the trio, preferring to press on with its own plans to deploy a 100Mbps service to half of Italy’s population by 2018.