The objectives and activities of the Supervisory Authority will have to take into account Tim's new vertical separation model. This is what emerged from the 2021 annual report of the Supervisory Body on Equal access to the Tim network in the context of the protection of the principles of non-discrimination and equal treatment. Presented today, Wednesday 22 June, in the presence of the President of the SB, Gianni Orlandi, the Director General DG Connect of the European Commission Roberto Viola, connected from Brussels, Laura Aria, Commissioner of the Communications Regulatory Authority, Mario Antonio Scino , Deputy Chief of Cabinet of the MISE, and Pietro Labriola, CEO of Tim.
During 2021, the Body continued to assist Agcom in monitoring the services offered by Tim Wholesale to other operators in the Delivery and Assurance processes of regulated access services, also through appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs) which have permitted to verify compliance with the principles of non-discrimination.
The President of the Organ, Gianni Orlandi, declared: “The world of TLC is at the center of the debate and the future of the access network remains to be written. The Supervisory Authority represents a best practice, recognized at European level, of a co-supervision model that has supported Tim and the Authority over more than a decade. We hope to be able to continue to carry out our task, for the benefit of the whole market, in the manner that will be defined by Agcom in concert with the other stakeholders, also within the new regulatory and market structures".
Labriola: "Vertical integration of telecommunications has become anachronistic"
Pietro Labriola, CEO of Tim, assured "we are ready to take the final step, I would say decisive, in the long process of transforming the governance of the TIM network: the ownership unbundling of the entire access network of the Group (NetCo), on the basis of a plan that will be announced to investors on July 7, 2022”.
Labriola said that the vertical integration of TLCs "has become anachronistic" and explained that the separation of Tim's assets networked (NetCo) e services (ServCo) it has industrial motivations, which have to do with efficiency.
"The services sector is characterized by competitive dynamics that are incompatible with the long periods of recovery of infrastructure investments", explained the manager, adding "up to now we have had to take into account the retail market but also the needs of wholesale market, with no certainty about the return on investment due to the high regulatory pressure”. The separation of the will therefore bring advantages in terms of efficiency and competitiveness, greater commercial flexibility for the retail and greater predictability and stability of returns for the Wholesale.
“We don't separate ourselves to look for a 'regulatory dividend' on which so many projects of the past have run aground. However, it is in the order of things that the new coordinated analysis of the access markets, launched by Agcom in 2020, will have to take into account Tim's new vertical separation model and its consequences in terms of simplification of current retail and wholesale rules ”, concluded Labriola.
