Telecom Italia (TI) has confirmed plans to sell off 40% of its mobile tower unit Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane (Inwit) via an initial public offering (IPO) in Milan. The telco is currently seeking approval for the sale from Italy’s securities regulator Consob. The price range has not yet been finalised. Inwit controls around 11,500 mobile phone masts across Italy, which are then leased back to TI and other operators.
Separately, TI’s chief executive Marco Patuano has welcomed the announcement by Italian state-owned utility firm Enel that it is willing to work with telcos to help with the deployment of high speed fibre networks. Reuters quotes Patuano as saying that he sees Enel’s offer as ‘a big opportunity, rather than as a threat’. Enel revealed earlier this month that it would be willing to participate in the government’s planned EUR12 billion (USD13.3 billion) national broadband network deployment, which aims to have fibre networks passing 85% of Italy’s population by 2020. The utility firm has written to the communications regulator Agcom saying its domestic network could be used to help install fibre-optic cables more cheaply.