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Sept. 17, 2020Indiscretions reported by Bloomberg that the European Antirust may oppose the creation of a single company for the broadband network controlled by the former monopolist, put the Tim title on the swing.



The fear of the European authority, led by Margrethe Vestager, would be the possible creation of a monopoly due to the possible combination between Telecom and the smaller Open Fiber, which would represent a clear change of direction after decades of deregulation.



Tim's CEO, Luigi Gubitosi, has been pushing for the merger with Open Fiber for months and has repeatedly made it clear that the company would not intend to hand over control of the network after the merger.

However, for the moment there is no official confirmation from the EU, with the Commission merely saying that "developments are closely monitored".

A contrary opinion of the Antitrust could blow the bank, even if both companies are based in Italy.



On 10 September,

speaking to the Transport Commission in the Chamber

, the Minister for Economic Development Stefano Patuanelli had supported the need for a company that has fiber and 5G within a regulated market, "a company that was born exclusively with fiber can be the starting point but it must not be the end point: I see a society of networks and technologies, which can have both fiber and 5G inside, which allows access on equal terms in a regulated market to the operators ".



On the same day,

in an article dedicated to the unique network in Italy

, the Financial Times wrote that "The Italian telecommunications industry has always swum against the tide in Europe": "while telecommunications companies in other parts of Europe have spent 20 years complaining that regulators and governments are obsessed with promoting competition, Italy has announced a plan to merge the two networks, effectively recreating a monopolistic broadband provider. The new AccessCo company will be majority controlled by Telecom Italia ".