Italy’s Communications Regulatory Authority (Autorita per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni, Agcom) has given the green light to a proposed joint venture between WINDTRE and Iliad which will deploy a shared mobile network in rural areas of the country. The watchdog says there are no issues regarding competition, saying the tie-up will be of benefit to rural customers and could encourage other firms to deploy networks in underserved areas.
In April WINDTRE said it would transfer 7,000 rural mobile towers and around 50 employees to a new networks subsidiary and Iliad would then acquire a 50% stake, with the JV used to build the shared 5G infrastructure. The towers cover around 25% of Italy’s population.