UPDATE:Italy Antitrust:To Assess New Broadband Co Governance

15th Jun 2010 12:26

(Adds details.) ROME (MF-Dow Jones)--The Italian antitrust regulator will have to assess the governance of a new broadband company that could soon be announced if telecoms operators Fastweb (FWB.MI), Vodafone Group PLC (VOD), Wind SpA and Tiscali (TIS.MI) reach an agreement, Italy's antitrust chairman Antonio Catricala said Tuesday at the annual meeting of the regulator. Catricala also said that the Italian regulator is not against such a company but stressed the fact that telecom operators need to provide "a neutral management of the new network." Fastweb, Vodafone, Wind and Tiscali have pledged to invest EUR2.5 billion to bring broadband to Italy's 15 largest cities in the next five years. Telecom Italia, Italy's largest telecommunications operator, last week dismissed calls for joining the rival broadband project, telling regulators that it will push ahead with its own plans to offer ultra broadband services to 50% of the Italian population by 2018. Italy's Industry vice minister for telecoms Paolo Romani separately said that he aims at calling a meeting with all telecom operators in the coming weeks in order to continue talks. "We have to start thinking about network infrastructure rather than simply a telecom network," Romani said. In May, Romani called all the companies involved in the case to discuss a common plan to build up a next-generation broadband network in Italy. -By Carlo Renda with MF-Dow Jones and Sabrina Cohen, Dow Jones Newswires, +39 02 5821 9906; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 15, 2010 07:26 ET (11:26 GMT)