Government pushing ahead with network separation

Italy’s Communications Ministry has revealed its proposals for strengthening the country’s telecoms regulator, Agcom, to allow it to oversee the ‘functional separation’ of Telecom Italia’s fixed line retail and networks businesses. The government is keen to push ahead with changes to Telecom Italia’s structure to ensure that the bulk of the country’s wireline infrastructure remains under national ownership; a number of foreign firms are interested in acquiring a controlling stake in Telecom Italia which is being offloaded by the Pirelli group. The new fixed line networks unit will incorporate all of Telecom Italia’s local loop connections plus ‘all the elements necessary to provide broadband access,’ the Ministry said in a statement. The new legislation is being added to an existing bill on liberalisation and is expected to be in force by the fourth quarter of this year, Dow Jones reports.