Telecom Italia (TIM) announced that its CEO, Marco Patuano, presented the company’s 2016-2018 business plan to trade unions and set out further details of the EUR 12 billion three-year investment. Patuano emphasised that around EUR 6.7 billion will be spent on innovation (NGN, LTE, cloud, TI Sparkle and transformation). Around EUR 3.6 billion will be allocated to rolling out fibre-optic cables to reach 84 percent of the Italian population by 2018, up from 75 percent in the earlier plan, while EUR 1.2 billion will be spent on further expanding the 4G network to cover 98 percent of the country. "This plan confirms us as leader in the development of infrastructure and in the digitisation of the country," said Patuano.
The group’s CEO added that the strategic focus of the new plan will be on multimedia entertainment, including activities in the field of video, music, gaming and publishing, among others. He also stressed that Telecom Italia will continue to support Italian businesses in their digital transformation process with its ICT and cloud services.
In the domestic mobile segment, the company aims to accelerate the distribution of smart devices and to market bundle offers that can generate a higher ARPU, supported by exclusive agreements with device manufacturers, while in the domestic fixed segment Telecom Italia plans to reduce the drop in customer numbers starting in 2016 with a view to achieving equality by 2018, thanks to the increased adoption of fibre by customers. The company expects fibre customers to reach a total of 5 million by 2018, 40 percent of the total broadband base.
