Italy’s telecoms watchdog, the Communications Regulatory Authority (Autorita per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni, Agcom), will not offer Telecom Italia (TIM) any incentives to spin off its fixed networks unit. According to a report from Il Sole 24 Ore, the telco is now likely to shelve a spin-off plan which was prepared by former CEO Amos Genish.
In January this year Agcom rejected TIM’s spin-off proposals, saying that it feared that the separation would not help boost competition in the domestic market and would let the incumbent benefit from ‘a significant competitive advantage’, except in Milan where extensive networks have been deployed by rival operators. In addition, a network separation would not work to ease the regulatory burden.
Meanwhile, Agcom has completed a market analysis of fixed network access and is proposing a slight reduction in the cost of Virtual Unbundled Local Access (VULA) for the period 2018-2020, though it is still planning on hitting its target of EUR12.50 (USD14.06) per line per month in 2021. Regulation will also be reduced in almost 30 urban areas where TIM is deemed to not have a dominant share of the market and at least two alternative network operators are present.