Italian Minister Welcomes Single National Telecom If Competition Preserved

Italy (Reuters) -Italy wants a stronger national telecoms network, Innovation Minister Vittorio Colao said on Saturday, adding this could be achieved by merging Telecom Italia (TIM) and Open Fiber assets as long as competition in the sector is maintained.

“What we’re keen on is a national telecoms infrastructure ensuring great performance and quality,” Colao told reporters on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti business forum.

“If this were to happen by combining parts of Telecom (Italia) with Open Fiber, that’s welcome as long as competition is preserved,” Colao added.

A former head of Britain’s Vodafone, Colao said he was worried about the industry in Italy and Europe because return on investments and innovation capacity has dropped in the past few years.

Italy’s broadband performance lags that of many of its fellow European Union (EU) countries.

Colao confirmed that Italy, together with Spain and France, has called for the European Commission to come up with legislation that ensures Big Tech firms partly finance telecoms infrastructure in the bloc, as reported by Reuters last month.

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