Telecom Italia unhappy with retroactive LLU rate cut

Italy’s telecoms regulator Agcom has made a retroactive cut to the rates for local loop unbundling (LLU) for the period 2010-2012. The move follows an investigation into the rates by the country’s Council of State. The rate for 2012 will be cut by EUR0.23 per line, from EUR9.28 to EUR9.05 (USD11.58 to USD11.29), while the rate for 2010/11 has dropped from EUR8.90 to EUR8.67. The cuts mean that incumbent operator Telecom Italia (TI) will be forced to repay tens of millions of euros to alternative operators for lines which were unbundled over the three-year period. TI has said it will appeal the decision, with Italian financial news portal FIRSTonline reporting TI chief executive Marco Patuano as expressing his ‘bitterness’ at how the rates can be set and altered retroactively.