Italy’s communications regulator turned down Telecom Italia SpA’s plan to separate its landline network, arguing that a spinoff of the indebted carrier’s most valuable asset would not help boost competition in the domestic market.
Green-lighting the project, proposed last year by then-Telecom Italia chief executive officer Amos Genish, would let the former phone monopoly continue to enjoy “a significant competitive advantage” nationwide except in Milan, Agcom said in a document posted on its Web site over the weekend.
A separation would not ease any regulatory burden, according to the Italian government agent, which cited Telecom Italia’s plan to retain full control of the grid.
A representative for Telecom Italia declined to comment.
Agcom is to put its ruling, which was earlier reported by Bloomberg, to a 45-day public consultation. After that, the regulator is to make a final decision.
Analysts have estimated the value of the network at 15 billion euros (US$17.06 billion). The grid, which Telecom Italia rivals access to provide their own broadband services, is considered of national importance to the government.
The notion of spinning off Telecom Italia’s fixed-line business has for years been debated by the country’s telecom industry. The subject has also been a controversial issue in Italy, whose government led by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte favors the creation of a single network company partially owned by state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, which holds almost 5 percent of Telecom Italia.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi di Maio has said he might push for a merger of the grid with Open Fiber, which is backed by utility Enel SpA and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.
Agcom’s decision might lead Luigi Gubitosi, who took over as Telecom Italia’s CEO in November last year, to withdraw the proposal in its current form, people familiar with the matter said.
The company faces growing competition and is struggling under one of the European telecom industry’s biggest debt burdens and heavy pension liabilities. It has not paid a dividend on its ordinary shares since 2013. The stock lost more than 30 percent of its value in the past 12 months.
Telecom Italia last week reported an slowdown in its home market and predicted that pressure from competitors would continue to hold back earnings this year.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year. The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterated its strong revenue growth forecast for this year and 2026 after its stock plummeted about 23 percent to NT$3,145 from a peak of NT$4,085 on March 6 amid growing competition. Alchip said it has built strong partnerships with cloud service providers (CSP), denying that it had lost orders to smaller competitors such as Faraday Technology Corp (智原). Faraday said it has secured