TIM, with the aim of accelerate coverage and adoption of ultra-broadband ultra-high capacity in the country ahead of the launch of FiberCop, he published on your site Wholesale the co-investment offer for the construction of the secondary optical fiber access network. Thanks to this project, FTTH solutions will be offered to households and businesses in 1.610 municipalities across the country by 2025.
The co-investment offer was, at the same time, notified to the Communications Regulatory Authority (Agcom) so that it can evaluate it in accordance with the new European Code of Electronic Communications and take the consequent measures.
TIM's initiative is based on the 'open' co-investment model envisaged by the new Code and represents the first case of this type in Europe on a national scale. The application of the new provisions of the Code will make it possible to encourage investments in fibre and to accelerate the transition of households and businesses from the network legacy in copper to the new infrastructure.
The co-investment offer regards approximately 75% of the real estate units in the gray and black areas of the country and provides for the supply of wholesale access services to the FTTH network which can be used by operators with various technical solutions. The project is aimed at all market operators. The fiber network architecture that will be adopted is aimed at reconciling the objectives of efficiency and promotion of infrastructural competition between operators, also simplifying the migration processes of retail customers between different suppliers.
Interested operators will be able to join the co-investment even on more limited geographical extensions than the entire project, even at the level of a single municipality. In any case, the co-investment methods guarantee the widest possibility of participation for operators with different degrees of infrastructure or with different infrastructures in different geographical areas, including local operators.
As required by the new European Code, the model of participation in the co-investment is based on an effective one long-term risk sharing construction of the new FTTH network. The degree of sharing of the risk will be decided, on a non-discriminatory basis, by each co-investor according to their own characteristics and business choices. As established by the new Code, participation in the project can also take place in the years after 2021, against a consideration determined so as to reflect the fact that the first investors accept greater risks and commit their capital before the others.
