The report drafted by telecoms expert Francesco Caio cautioned that digital agenda targets would not be met without continuous and active government supervision and Patuano agreed that the state needed to play a key role in promoting and developing infrastructure, adding that “public infrastructure works will be decisive in solving the problem of connectivity in those areas where the market has failed, areas not covered by the plans of the private operators.”
Patuano was also in full agreement with Italian prime minister Enrico Letta’s view that the spin-off of Telecom Italia’s fixed network should only be implemented in “extrema ratio” – as a last resort. The CEO underlined the absolute strategic nature of such a move, stressing that “the hypotheses for the spin-off of the network are very difficult to reconcile with the regulatory framework, both European and Italian, for a sector that has been completely liberalised since 1998, and characterised by growing competitiveness.”
Although the Caio report does not specifically mention fixed network unbundling, Letta said that the option was always available to the government if operators, including Telecom Italia, failed to invest sufficiently in infrastructure development.
