Reuters reveals Vodafone, Telecom Italia offered rivals access to some sites to ease EU concerns

Reuters exclusively reported that Vodafone and Telekom Italia have offered to allow rivals access to sites in some cities for up to nine years, a proposal aimed at allaying EU antitrust concerns over the creation of Italy’s largest mobile tower company. For the telecoms industry, combining towers or sharing networks to reduce debt and share costs are seen as an alternative to counter EU antitrust regulators’ tough line on telecoms mergers that reduce the number of players in a market from four to three.