There is no exclusivity bond, but Telecom Italia and Fastweb last April 24, they signed a memorandum of understanding by joining forces in the ultra-broadband market. In particular, the two TLCs agree to experiment innovative solutions together for the objectives of the European Digital Agenda, and to bring 100 megaphones using both fiber and copper (FTTC, Fiber to the cabinet).
The agreement in principle is valid until December 2016 and also involves the French of Alcatel Lucent and the Chinese of Huawei. According to what can be read in the memorandum, the partnership involves two main phases: in May, the experimentation in the laboratories of Telecom in Turin and Fastweb in Milan of enhanced VDSL technology (supplied by Alcatel Lucent and Huawei) on FTTC architecture (fiber up to cabinet and then copper all the way home), and from October the creation of field connections in various cities to make speeds above 100 megabits per second available to users.
The project also seems to draw a definitive veil on the story Metroweb: the announcement in fact comes a few days after the "no" that Telecom received to its proposal for the development of Metroweb, the fiber network controlled by the CDP. The former monopolist had proposed to the F2i infrastructure fund to take control of Metroweb in two stages: first, rising to 40 percent (plus 10 percent without voting rights) and subsequently - after a period of 4-5 years - get to 100 percent. But the resounding "no" from the shareholders came because Vodafone and Wind are also in the game and are asking that the network company be divided into equal shares among the operators and reflect the investment commitment.
Telecom therefore launches a joint experimentation with the Swisscom subsidiary with the aim, according to the MoU, "of optimizing the coexistence of operators from the point of view of the exploitation of the transmission capacities and verifying the performance quality of the new technologies also on cabinets with a high number of active ultrabroadband lines”. The results of the trial, Telecom and Fastweb have agreed, will be made available to the market. Field trials will then start in October: real customers already connected in Fiber To The Cabinet of Telecom Italia and Fastweb will be connected with enhanced VDSL and the relative speeds will be subjected to multiple measurements.
