Last checked at 
(Adds details, comments)
By Alberto Sisto
ROME, March 16 (Reuters) - Italian power utility Enel is set to reach an agreement with mobile networkoperators Vodafone and Vimpelcom's Wind over itsplans to help develop a national fibre-optic broadband network,Chief Executive Francesco Starace said on Wednesday.
Since Prime minister Matteo Renzi made the development of anationwide fibre network a government priority Enel has offeredto use its domestic power network to run fibre all the way intohomes and offices.
State-controlled Enel is about to start installing a newgeneration of smart electricity meters into 33 million Italianhomes and has proposed laying fibre in its pipes at the sametime.
However, the proposal has caused some friction with TelecomItalia which has its own plans for connecting thecountry's homes up to ultrafast broadband.
Starace told parliament's industry committee on Wednesdaythat Enel's proposal would cost 30-40 percent less than buildinga new fibre network from scratch.
"On March 22 I will propose to the board an agreement withVodafone and Wind regarding 250 cities," he said.
Vodafone and Wind would be commercial partners paying arental fee to use the cables rather than be shareholders in EnelOpen Fibre, the vehicle created to manage the project, he said.
Starace said the vehicle would be open to other operators,adding talks with Telecom Italia and Swisscom's localbroadband subsidiary Fastweb were continuing while small Italianbroadband firm Metroweb was also interested.
Shareholders in Enel Open Fibre would be primarily financialand would not be more than two, he said.
"The objective is to create, manage and maintain fibreinfrastructure ... both in (profitable) areas and thedisadvantaged ones," he said.
Enel has plans to duplicate similar services in countrieswhere Enel operates power distribution infrastructure such as inLatin America, Spain and Romania.
Telecom Italia is separately talking with Metroweb overbringing fibre-to-the-home to 250 Italian cities and the twocompanies have submitted a joint proposal to the regulator forapproval.
Meanhile Wind Telecommunicazioni is currently trying to get approval from the EU's competition regulators to merge with CKHutchison's 3 Italia, the smallest of Italy's fourmobile network operators. (Writing by Agnieszka Flak and Stephen Jewkes; Editing by GregMahlich)
