They had worked together before. And now Marco Patuano, CEO of Cellnex, struggling with the reorganization of the summit, called to his side again Luca Luciani to manage the Italian part (Cellnex Italy) of the European giant of transmission towers. To Cellnex, of which it is the largest shareholder Benetton with a 10% share, Luciani would take over Gianluca Landolina which in turn was moved to the British market as head of Cellnex UK in the recent reorganization of the front line carried out by Patuano himself.
“I am happy to announce the appointment of Luca Luciani to lead the group's Italian activities” said Patuano. “Luca will bring to Cellnex his considerable experience in the telecommunications industry and his deep knowledge of the Italian market which, combined with his leadership skills and a focused approach to development, will allow him to continue to grow the team and the business in Italy. I thank Gianluca Landolina for the precious role played in Italy, wishing him a good job in the UK".
Luciani leaves the Australian competitor Bai
Luciani, ex-Tim, at the beginning of last year joined competitor Bai Communications (an Australian operator which mainly deals with small antennas, unlike Cellnex and Inwit). But behind this Luciani has over twenty years of experience in the world of telecoms, holding top positions at the former Sip, from which he left in 2013. At Tim he worked closely with Patuano in the finance area and managed the business in the rich South American market, where he was CEO of Tim Brasil from 2009 to 2012.
Italy, second market for Cellnex
In this way Patuano would not only snatch a top man from the competition, but would put him in charge of an excellent expanding sector: Italy in fact it became the second market most important for the Iberian operator, becoming European leader in the last eight years with the management of 21.000 towers (out of a total of 138.000 by the end of the year throughout the Old Continent): Italy contributes to the consolidated turnover of 3,5 billion euros with approximately 850 million revenues. Had been Landolina to open the Italian market for Cellnex in 2015, increasing the size of the business by 500% in just a few years, increasing the number of towers in the domestic portfolio by over 300% and increasing tenfold the number of small antennas and devices with which the group ensures latest generation wireless connectivity for example in subways, skyscrapers or shopping centres.
Now Luciani will have to continue diversifying the business (Cellnex Italia won the latest tenders in the country for the management of mission critical networks, i.e. encrypted telecommunications with a high level of security) and investments to guarantee the reliability of the transmission service to large operators telephone numbers.
