If the reports are true, the figure amounts to around 30% of Telecom Italia’s workforce. The anonymous inside sources said Enel’s plans will make it easier for the incumbent’s rivals to provide faster web access, reports Bloomberg.
Interestingly, the Italian Economy Ministry is Enel’s largest investor, with a circa 24% stake. Michele Azzola, national secretary of the SLC-Cgil telecommunications workers union, added to Bloomberg that if the redundancies go ahead, “the blame will be on Renzi”, the Italian PM. “During the last year, Italy’s premier lost any interest in the country’s largest phone carrier.”
“Installing fibre cables through our electricity network, which reaches the businesses and homes of 32 million Italians, will enable wide-ranging coverage of the country at competitive costs, creating value for Enel and for all players that will want to use this new, important infrastructure,” CEO and GM of Enel, Francesco Starace, stated last month.
The incumbent operator reportedly risks losing around 5 million wholesale clients, most of whom are from Vodafone Plc’s Italian unit and Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA, the sources told Bloomberg.
It's been a turbulent time for Telecom Italia with the recent resignation of Marco Patuano as CEO. Earlier this week, Enel Open Fibre announced that former Telecom Italia network boss Stefano Paggi had joined its ranks.
A news conference by the Italian premier Matteo Renzi on Italian broadband is scheduled to be taking place today.
