The new company will aim to reach 76% of property units in the grey and black areas of Italy through fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology

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Gruppo TIM has concluded previously announced deals with KKR and Fastweb to enable the launch of FiberCop. (Credit: Carlo Dani/Wikipedia.org)

Gruppo TIM (formerly Telecom Italia) has announced the launch of FiberCop, a new digital fibre network company created to help reduce the digital divide in Italy.

FiberCop combines the secondary network of the Italian telecommunications provider and FlashFiber’s fibre network.

FlashFiber is a joint venture between TIM (80%) and Fastweb (20%).

As per the deal signed in August 2020, KKR Infrastructure has closed its acquisition of a 37.5% stake in FiberCop for €1.8bn from TIM. The consideration was based on an enterprise value of nearly €7.7bn and an equity value of €4.7bn for the new company.

Fastweb has acquired a stake of 4.5% in the new digital fibre network company by transferring its stake held in FlashFiber to TIM.

The closing of the deals has enabled the new company to become fully operational.

FiberCop is expected to see earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of nearly €900m on a full year basis. The company will also have a positive EBITDA – CAPEX beginning from 2025 and will not need any injections of capital from shareholders, said TIM.

Furthermore, the digital fibre network company will enable TIM, Fastweb, and other operators in co-investing, and in implementing the fibre coverage plans in black and grey areas of Italy.

The new company will help the operators to expedite the adoption of ultra-broadband (UBB) services, on the basis of an open co-investment model.

According to TIM, the new firm will offer all market operators passive access services of the secondary copper and fibre network.

FiberCop will depend on the fibre infrastructure that had been installed already by FlashFiber. This will ensure that there is no duplication of investments while maximising efficiency and promote competition, said TIM.

The Italian telecommunications provider stated: “FiberCop has a network asset that today already offers over 90% of the population UBB connections thanks to fibre to the curb/cabinet (FTTC) and FTTH technology.

“The company will continue to assure FTTH coverage, with a connection speed of up to 1 Gigabit, with the aim of reaching 76% of grey and black area property units, equating to coverage of a total of 56% of the country’s technical property units, by 2025.”

Earlier this year, TIM had submitted a co-investment offer pertaining to FiberCop’s secondary network to the Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM) and also to the market.