Stefan Mileschin

Italy’s cash strapped telecos have been thrown a lifeline by the Italian power company Enel but they are under pressure from the Italian status quo to say no.

For years Italy’s broadband has fallen behind the rest of the EU because none of the telcos wanted to invest money in expensive infrastructure and the Italian government is too busy trying to work out how it can hold onto power long enough its MPs to collect a life long pension.

Enel has written to the Italian communications regulator offering to help with building a nationwide ultrafast broadband telecoms network.

Enel, which is controlled by the Italian government, wrote a letter to the regulator on April 14 saying its domestic network could be used to help install fibre optic cables more cheaply.

“Enel believes it can help develop a key infrastructure for the future of the country,” Enel’s head of Italy Carlo Tamburi said in the letter to AGCOM.

Enel said its contribution would be done “in a synergistic way with what the telecom operators have done and planned”, bringing clear benefits to less populated and industrial areas.

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