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Bombshell news just arrived at our editorial office. It had been talked about for some time but there was still nothing official. Now, however, with a joint press release, Tim and Iliad announce a partnership on FiberCop. With a formula, however, even more advanced than initially assumed. It really is something super cool. Make yourself comfortable.
Meanwhile, as always, the discussion is super heated on our Telegram Channel where we will continue to discuss the alliance between Tim and Iliad throughout the day. The Telegram channel of 4Fan.it can be reached at this link.
Iliad in FiberCop
That Iliad was interested in an agreement with FiberCop it has been thought for some time. So much so that the open table between Tim and Iliad could be one of the most substantial reasons for the delay in the launch of the Iliad Fibra product. Initially expected by summer 2021, Iliad Fibra was then postponed to an even more generic “after summer 2021 ″. The reason for this postponement could be Iliad’s desire to launch a product with coverage close to the entire territory, rather than limited to the ultra-broadband offered by Open Fiber.
Because yes, Iliad will be able to use FiberCop’s fiber, or that of Tim and Fastweb but this agreement, which we will soon discover better, absolutely does not replace the one signed months ago with Open Fiber. The operator wholesale, recently totally emancipated from Enel, will continue to offer access to its network to Iliad. A structurally more performing network than FiberCop, consisting only of FTTH fiber (the one that reaches home at maximum speed).
In short, Iliad’s new fiber offer will be a combination of the two networks. Obviously the user will turn on the offer directly with Iliad which will then serve the user with the network manager who arrives in that particular home. The fact is that with the sum FiberCop plus Open Fiber Iliad is aware that it can reach from day zero the totality of the Italian population already served by fiber. For a second revolution in telephony that will obviously start with fifth gear engaged.
Why is the agreement talking about co-investment?
But there is another juicy novelty in this deal. As mentioned in the past weeks we had written about a possible closeness between Tim and Iliad on access to fiber. It was a little in the air. But until now we had imagined this as a simple supply agreement. Just along the lines of the partnership already signed with Open Fiber.
But there is much more to this alliance. Because the parties involved, as you can read from the press release that we report in full between a few lines, clearly speak of co-investment. A very particular formula already tested by Tim and Fastweb with the player Tiscali. In practice, this is not a mere wholesale supply. Iliad will almost enter into partnership with Tim and Fastweb investing directly in the development of the FiberCop company and therefore in its new generation network. It means that in fact Iliad will not only be able to use the FiberCop network but will partly own it. It is therefore obvious that this is a conceptually very different agreement and an alliance that from a financial point of view is becoming much deeper.
Do you remember the many detractors of Iliad who said that the new manager would leave our country in a few months? Here, today Iliad we could tell it with three main characteristics: 1) Breakeven achieved. It means that Iliad earns more than it spends and is therefore solid and profitable. 2) Own mobile network which will reach approximately 8500 active antennas by the end of the year, with increasing independence from WindTre and therefore lower costs. 3) Fixed fiber network provided by a long-term co-investment together with Tim, Fastweb, Tiscali and other national operators who will eventually join in this adventure.
In short, a manager who has all the characteristics of a large company that intends to stay in our country for a long time. But now, after these analyzes of ours in which we have tried to explain the true essence of this news, we leave you to the joint official press release of Tim and Iliad. Here’s what the two phone companies are saying today. One last curious thing though: while Tim and Iliad shake hands on the optical fiber, the war seems to be moving on the mobile sites offered by InWit and on which Iliad allegedly denounced hostility contrary to the rules of free competition. But we will write about this in the next posts here on 4Fan.it.
Press release Iliad-Tim 9 August 2021
FIBERCOP AND ILIAD SIGN CO-INVESTMENT AGREEMENT TO ACCELERATE THE DIFFUSION OF FIBER IN THE COUNTRY
Rome, August 9, 2021
The TIM Group, through FiberCop, and iliad have signed an agreement that will make it possible to develop the access market Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH). The parties have in fact defined iliad’s participation in the co-investment project on the FiberCop network, a Group company that builds the secondary fiber optic access network up to homes.
Iliad’s adhesion to the co-investment offer – which the TIM Group makes through FiberCop – follows that of other national operators, such as Fastweb and the one being finalized with Tiscali, and confirms the validity of the investment plan of FiberCop which will ensure FTTH coverage of 75% of the gray and black areas of the country by 2025. TIM will also offer iliad access to the primary fiber network.
The agreement is a confirmation of iliad’s commitment to make investments to contribute to the digitization of the country and offer high quality connectivity with simple and transparent offers.
For TIM, the agreement reached confirms the effectiveness of the co-investment model. This model allows all interested operators to participate in the development of optical fiber in Italy in a framework of infrastructural competition that accelerates the overcoming of the digital divide on a national scale. Furthermore, it allows families and businesses to migrate to ultra broadband connections with speeds greater than 1 Gigabit per second.
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