Telecom Italia has started the process of unifying its fixed, mobile and Internet offers under one commercial brand: TIM.
The company already uses TIM for its mobile services in Italy as well as Brazil and recently rebranded content services previously sold under the "Cubo" brand under TIM. From 2016, TIM will become the group's only commercial brand, reflecting its ambition to focus on converged bundles of fixed and mobile services such as with the existing TIM Smart plans.
In a statement outlining other planned changes including a new flat rate for home telephone lines from May this year, Telecom Italia also announced that it has already "smashed" the annual targets of its 2014-2016 plan, reaching more than 80 per cent of the population with its 4G services and 30 per cent with fibre broadband.
"We have exceeded the annual targets set in the 2014-2016 industrial plan by a significant margin," said CEO Marco Patuano.
Patuano noted that over 3,500 municipalities now have access to 4G, with "ultra-broadband" services now available in 130 towns and cities.
"The results achieved have caused Telecom Italia to change its competitive paradigm, moving from a market in which competition between operators was based on the so-called 'price war' to a market that is instead characterised by service quality and, even more so, by the full availability of an ultra-broadband network to exploit innovative products," the CEO added.
The company plans to present its plan for 2015-2017 along with its preliminary results for 2014 on Feb. 20. The new three-year plan is expected to include details about a planned acceleration of investments in Italy and Brazil, where Telecom Italia controls the country's second-largest mobile operator, TIM Participacoes SA.
For example, in November last year the board authorised the company to explore a tie-up between TIM Participacoes and Brazilian rival Oi. In turn, Oi is analysing its merger options and is understood to be considering a $15 billion (€13 billion) offer for TIM Participacoes together with Telefónica and America Movil.
However, Bloomberg reported last week that talks relating to Telecom Italia's plans to buy a holding in Italy-based operator Metroweb stalled because of a disagreement over the ownership structure.
For more:
- see this Telecom Italia release
- see this Bloomberg article
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