Regulator wants network opened by end of summer

Thomson Financial, quoting daily Finanza & Mercati, reports that Italian watchdog AGCOM wants to finish defining the separation of the fixed line access network of incumbent Telecom Italia (TI) from the rest of the group ‘by the end of the summer’. Earlier this year the former monopoly set up its Open Access division to manage its local fixed access network. AGCOM ‘welcomed with interest’ the move, but regards it as only the first step towards a broader liberalisation of the network. In a statement, AGCOM revealed that if properly developed, the new network management structure could lead to a new, more liberal approach to fixed line regulation. Meanwhile TI’s CEO Franco Bernabe spoke of the importance the telco placed on a ‘calm and constructive’ relationship with AGCOM, based on thorough and transparent information. ‘Talks with the regulator have begun,’ he told the paper, ‘that we want to carry out with great transparency, that I hope will be virtuous.’