With the aim of speeding up coverage and the adoption of very high-capacity ultrabroadband across the country, in view of the launch of FiberCop, TIM has published on its wholesale website (https://wdc.wholesale.telecomitalia.it/) its co-investment offer for roll out of the secondary fibre optic access network. This project will allow FTTH solutions to be offered to households and businesses in 1,610 municipalities across the country by 2025.
The Italian Communications Authority (AGCom) has at the same time been notified of the co-investment offer so that it can evaluate it in accordance with the new European Electronic Communications Code and take the consequent measures.
TIM’s initiative is based on the “open” co-investment model envisaged by the new Code and is the first example of a nation-wide project of this kind in Europe. Application of the new provisions of the Code will encourage investments in fibre and speed up the transition of families and businesses from the legacy copper network to the new infrastructure.
The co-investment offer relates to around 75% of property units in the grey and black areas of the country and provides for the supply of wholesale access services to the FTTH network that can be used by operators with various technical solutions. The project is aimed at all market operators. The fibre network architecture that will be adopted is suited to reconciling the objectives of efficiency and promoting infrastructure competition between operators, while also simplifying retail customer migration processes between different suppliers.
Interested operators will be able to join the co-investment programme even for smaller geographical areas than the entire project, even at the level of individual municipalities. In any case, the co-investment procedure provides extensive opportunities for operators with different degrees of infrastructure or with different infrastructure in different geographical areas, including local operators, to get involved.
As required by the new European Code, the co-investment participation model is based on effective sharing of the long-term risk of building the new FTTH network. The degree of risk sharing will be determined, on a non-discriminatory basis, by each co-investor according to their characteristics and business choices. Investors may also sign up to the project after 2021, in exchange for a fee that reflects the fact that the initial investors accept greater risks and commit their capital before the others, as established by the new Code.
Rome, 29 January 2021
