Telecom Italia (TIM) has announced a joint venture with broadband provider Fastweb to invest a total of EUR 1.2 billion to accelerate the rollout of FTTH technology in 29 cities across Italy. The partnership envisages the establishment of a joint venture with 80 percent of the capital held by TIM and 20 percent by Fastweb. The aim is to bring 1Gbps connections to a total of around 3 million homes by 2020, with the investment funded in part with equity and in part with debt. TIM said its share has already been included in the Capex of its 2016-2018 business plan, while Fastweb’s direct exposure will be limited to about EUR 55 million over the next four years, self-financed with its own cash flow.
In addition, as part of the deal, TIM said it will buy from Fastweb the FTTH infrastructure required to connect to its network around 650,000 homes in six cities one year earlier than envisaged in its business plan. TIM and Fastweb also indicated that they will study the possibility of extending their partnership to other sectors in order to jointly develop passive infrastructure and technologies for the rapid spread of ultrabroadband.
Fastweb added that its existing plan to extend ultra-broadband coverage to 13 million or 50 percent of Italian households and business premises by 2020 remained unchanged. However, it was keen to stress that its FTTH footprint will now grow from 2 million at the end of 2016 to 5 million by 2020, while its FTTC footprint will grow from 5.5 million to 8 million, instead of the 11 million previously envisaged under its four-year plan.
