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Because Fastweb flirts with Tim and Kkr for FiberCop

3 years ago babelfish

Because Fastweb flirts with Tim and Kkr for FiberCop

What Fastweb said in the Chamber hearing on FiberCop

“FiberCop represents an epochal transition” thanks to which we are in “an ideal situation”. Thus Fastweb, in a hearing at the Chamber of Deputies, talks about the joint venture established last August between Tim, Fastweb and Kkr with the blessing and the push of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and the Conte government, which hopes for a Single Network that also includes the assets by Open Fiber.

For Fastweb, the project will contribute to a rapid digitization of the country, in favor of companies and citizens.

Let's go step by step.

FLASH-FIBER

Let's start with the facts. And from history. Fastweb, one of the first companies to focus on the creation of a fiber internet network, in 2016 decided to accelerate the country's cabling project by allying itself with Tim in the FlashFiber joint venture.

The project, explains the company led by Alberto Calcagno, "has made it possible to build FTTH infrastructures for about 3 million homes in 29 cities in just over 3 years", Fastweb said in a hearing in the Chamber as part of the joint examination, in the European Union acts, of the White Paper on artificial intelligence.

FIBERCOP: FASTWEB AND TIM RELAUNCH

The two companies are now relaunching. And together they invest in FiberCop. The joint venture that also includes Kkr among the partners aims to bring fiber to 76% of the black and gray areas of the country by 2025.

It is, explains Fastweb, a project "in line with the principle of" open co-investment "established by the new European communications code: it means that all operators, more or less large, can participate through a corporate approach as Fastweb did entering the capital ". Tiscali, for example, will soon make its entry.

FIBERCOP: EPOCAL PASSAGE

The birth of FiberCop, owned by Tim (58%), Kkr Infrastructure (37.5) and Fastweb (4.5%) represents, for Alberto Calcagno's company, "an epochal transition: for the first time a very important part of TIM's copper and fiber network will no longer be controlled by TIM but transferred under the control of a separate joint venture. This brings clear advantages over the previous situation in which the former incumbent's copper and fiber network was an asset of the company, ”Fastweb said at a hearing in the House.

“FiberCop is a company that will operate only at a wholesale level with the mission of selling to all parties on the market – in an absolutely equal and non-discriminatory way – the FTTH connections that the various operators will then offer to their customers. The implications in terms of greater transparency of the process for us are very significant ".

FASTWEB CONFIDENT

Fastweb is definitely positive about the future of the new joint venture, which has recently begun to take its first steps : "the existing copper and fiber network was transferred to the investment vehicle, the project partners will not have to face other outlays of capital because the revenues from the sale of wholesale services will generate resources for investments ".

The participation of the Kkr fund (last week the executive gave the green light with prescriptions for the entry of the American fund Kkr in FiberCop alongside Tim and Fastweb, as required by the rules on golden power) is an added value: “The presence of the Kkr infrastructural fund, not only does not represent an obstacle to achieving the objectives – that is the rapid implementation of the FTTH network – but guarantees it”, claims the company led by Calcagno.

AN IDEAL SITUATION

It goes further than Fastweb: "We are therefore in an ideal situation: one in which the legitimate interest of private investors such as TIM, Fastweb and KKR is perfectly aligned with the public interest: we all win if we achieve our goal. data, or the creation of the fiber network ".

A UNIQUE NETWORK?

Could this network be unique?

FiberCop should only be a step towards the birth of AccessCo, or rather a single network in which the assets of Open Fiber can also be brought together. The blessing of the project has already arrived from the Government and the CDP (Giuseppe Conte pushes for a single network), but the ok from Enel, which holds 50% of Open Fiber, is still missing.

Okay, however, that from the jabs between Gubitosi, CEO of Tim, and Starace, CEO of Enel, it could be slow in coming for now.

FASTWEB: HERE'S HOW TO SPEND NEXT GENERATION RESOURCES

Waiting for answers, Fastweb urges the Government to use the resources of the Next Generation EU "coordinated with the overall framework of the initiatives underway".

The money should “a) incentivize the investments of companies in ICT training by supporting the creation of training courses dedicated in particular to the employees of SMEs and PA personnel, with a particular focus on school personnel; b) updating school curricula to particularly enhance the creation of digital skills and reduce the gap between the required and available qualifications for the new generations (skills mismatch) ”, Fastweb claims.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/perche-fastweb-amoreggia-come-conte-con-tim-e-kkr-su-fibercop/ on Wed, 25 Nov 2020 07:59:45 +0000.