Iliad requests annulment of Fastweb-Wind Tre 5G sharing deal

The Iliad Italia subsidiary of France’s Iliad has filed a request to have the 5G network-sharing agreement between rivals Fastweb and Wind Tre annulled, according to a legal document and unnamed source cited by Reuters. An initial administrative court hearing will be held on the matter on 12 February to rule on whether to grant Iliad access to the corresponding deed of agreement, while a decision on the merit of Iliad's request is scheduled for 07 October, said the report. 

The deal between Fastweb and Wind Tre was announced in June last year, paving the way for the operators to share their respective assets in order to accelerate the deployment of 5G mobile broadband infrastructure throughout the country. Swisscom-owned Fastweb and Wind Tre, now 100 percent owned by CK Hutchison, said the shared 5G network will include macro and small cells from both companies, connected through dark fibre from Fastweb, to be deployed nationwide, with a targeted coverage of 90 percent of the population by 2026.

Iliad is the only network operator not to have reached a network sharing agreement for 5G. It also reportedly sent letters to Italian antitrust watchdog AGCM and communications regulator Agcom in May regarding the 5G network sharing deal agreed by Telecom Italia (TIM) and Vodafone in February.