Agcom, Tlc market growing. Network reorganisation central to the country

The tlc, or as electronic communications are now defined with technological evolution, has stopped burning value. "The market in 2023 exceeds 27 billion euros, halting a downward trend that has been going on for years, even though there persists, compared to 2019, a drop of around 10% (equal, in value, to over 2.9 billion euros)". These are the figures published in Agcom's Annual Report, which, commenting on them, explains the trend with "the growth of fixed network resources, induced by the new modes of communication, work organisation and media consumption (in particular the streaming of video content), which, from the pandemic phase onwards, characterises our experience". "The increase in traffic has been made possible by (and, at the same time, stimulated) constant adaptation of the network. Total broadband lines are estimated at about 19.12 million, growing both on a quarterly basis (about +100 thousand lines) and year-on-year (+110 thousand), offsetting the decline in DSL lines,' the report explains.

"The reorganisation of the ownership of the fixed network", with the sale by Tim and Kkr "constitutes an event of fundamental importance for the electronic communications sector in our country, from which equally fundamental changes to the structure of the offer and demand of the relative services follow. This transformation will inevitably have important repercussions for Agcom's regulatory activity'. This was said by Giacomo Lasorella, president of the Authority, in his report to Parliament. "Pending the definition of the process leading to the new structure, the Authority has deliberated, after public consultation, a new coordinated analysis of the markets for fixed network access services, intended to take effect for the years 2024 to 2029."

Giacomo Lasorella, president of Agcom, explained in his report to Parliament that "as is well known, the Authority does not weigh on the State budget, but is financed by the contribution of the operators. It appears increasingly necessary to homogenise the sources of funding and in particular the contribution, which is now parcelled out, due to a series of occasional and fragmented legislative interventions, into a plurality of different contributions (as many as nine) charged to the different categories of operators, in relation to specific functions, with different regulatory sources and different reporting obligations". This situation, adds Lasorella, "runs the risk, on the one hand, of causing the very unitary and convergent vocation that is one of the strengths of the Authority to be lost, potentially transforming it into an aggregate of nine separate authorities, moreover with overlaps and duplications; on the other hand, of not allowing resources to be found for activities that are not expressly covered by a specific contribution, or those for which the contributions collected from year to year prove insufficient. It is therefore necessary, on the basis of the experience of the other Authorities, to arrive at a single contribution, whose tax nature is reaffirmed, in accordance with the best case law of the Supreme Court and the Council of State".