(Adds detail, shares)
By Foo Yun Chee and Elvira Pollina
BRUSSELS/MILAN, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Vodafone and
Telecom Italia (TIM) have offered concessions in an
effort to allay EU antitrust concerns over their plan to create
Italy's biggest mobile towers company, a filing on the European
Commission website showed on Monday.
Under the deal announced in July last year, Vodafone will
transfer its Italian mobile masts to INWIT, which is
60% owned by TIM.
With EU antitrust regulators taking a tough line on telecoms
mergers that reduce the number of players in a market from four
to three, the sector is hoping that deals where operators
combine towers or share networks will make it easier for them to
reduce debt and share costs.
The companies submitted their offer on Friday and the EU
competition enforcer on Monday extended its deadline for a
decision on the deal to March 6 from Feb. 21.
The Commission will now seek feedback from the companies'
rivals and from consumers before deciding whether to accept the
offer, demand further measures or open a full-scale
investigation.
Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in Italy want the
companies to provide access to their network once the deal is
completed, especially as they roll out 5G infrastructure,
sources close to the matter told Reuters. MVNOs offer mobile
services to their customers over the wireless network
infrastructure of bigger rivals.
Reuters reported on Feb. 13 about the Commission's demand
for concessions.
Vodafone and TIM had no immediate comment.
TIM shares were up 0.4% up in morning trade while Vodafone
was flat.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee
Editing by David Goodman
)
Vodafone (VOD)
