VimpelCom and CK Hutchison have entered into exclusive talks with French telecom group Iliad over the possibility of acquiring Italian frequencies and infrastructure assets and setting up a fourth mobile operator in the country, according to two unnamed sources cited by Reuters. Previous reports have indicated that Wind and 3 Italia, the Italian subsidiaries of VimpelCom and CK Hutchison, have offered to sell assets including 8,000 network sites, frequencies and a roaming deal in a bid to convince EC regulators to approve their proposed merger. The European Commission will now decide whether Iliad, owned by French billionaire Xavier Niel, can compete effectively with the other three network operators, including Telecom Italia.
Swisscom's Italian broadband provider Fastweb has also confirmed its interest in the assets and has reportedly raised its mobile coverage proposal to 100 percent of Italy’s territory by 2020 in a bid to persuade regulators. The EC’s anti-trust authority is due to issue its decision on the merger on 08 September but one of the sources said Hutchison and VimpelCom may be told of its decision by the end of the week.
