Italy Clashes With Ex-Monopoly Over Future of Phone Network
- Conte’s government in interventionist push in private industry
- Premier wants to unify country’s overlapping landline networks
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Italy’s drive to reassert control over its patchy broadband network has opened a conflict with the country’s largest telecommunications company, in the latest episode of state interventionism by Premier Giuseppe Conte’s government.
With Italy’s private sector reeling from the pandemic, Conte has pushed for a larger state role in the economy, giving the government more power to veto foreign investments and orchestrate state-backed takeovers in industries ranging from highways to the Milan stock exchange. The latest run-in with former state monopoly Telecom Italia SpA shows just how contentious this push can be.