'Pnrr excavations for fibre completed in May, positive cash flow from 2028'

If the network is there, where does the game play now?

On utilisation. We need to connect customers and grow services. This is where we can see the skin change. the real crux remains the take-up, the adoption of the service, which is still too low in Italia. We are around 30%, below the European average. The problem is especially in white areas, where many users remain on copper and operators have migration costs without immediate benefits. Here, too, we are beginning to see positive signs.

What numbers are we talking about?

In those areas we have about 700,000 active customers, with about 1,500 activations per day. It is clear: there is still a long way to go.

How can the situation be unblocked and speeded up?

What is needed is an acceleration of the copper switch-off, whose limit was set by the EU for 2035 but which needs to be worked on now. And, in all likelihood, incentives would also be needed, but not so much for customers as for operators to bear the costs of migration. As far as we are concerned, we collect between 5,000 and 6,000 orders per day and connect around 4,500 new customers. The customer base continues to grow, we are at 3.9 million with leadership in the Ftth market. But more needs to be done.

Financially, when will the turning point be seen for you?

From 2027 we will stop absorbing cash and from 2028 we will start generating cash. After investing EUR 1.6 billion in 2025 and bringing cumulative investments close to EUR 12 billion, we enter, as I said, a second phase of our industrial cycle. In 2025, revenues stood at EUR 798.1 million (+18%), Ebitda at EUR 409.5 million (+53%), and Ebitda margin at 51%, while customers increased by 560,000. This is a sign that the business model is evolving towards greater solidity and sustainability in the long term.

Cash positive in 2028, but profit?

Further on. We mustn't forget that 12 billion of investment entails significant depreciation and then debt brings interest. All this has led us to invest, making Open Fiber the largest non-incumbent operator in Europe. And not by a small margin. We have a network that covers over 17 million property units; the second largest in Europe covers 4 or 5 million. We have a very important project financing, expiring in 2029. At that point we could possibly evaluate other financing options, such as issuing bonds.

Are you reviewing the terms of project financing with the banks at this stage?

We are simply recalibrating it on the basis of the reduction in the number of households to be covered, which has been decided. This is about 700,000 less in the grey areas, those of the NRP, with a consequent reduction in public contributions.

But in this context, would the single network option, joining fates with the other wholesale operator, which is Fibercop, not make sense?

It is clear that from an industrial point of view it would make sense. Of course, in black areas, those with the most infrastructure, the networks overlap. While in other cases the networks do not overlap. But these are partner issues.

As of today, however, is there any possibility of some partnership?

There are no operational partnerships today. Beyond corporate solutions, there is an important point to be made.

Which one?

The fibre network is not just a technological infrastructure, but a real platform for economic and social development. According to a recent study by Deloitte, every euro invested in the network in white areas generates about 4.4 euros of GDP, with an overall impact estimated at 21.5 billion and the creation of about 343 thousand jobs. Our goal is to maximise these benefits for the country. With this in mind, we have entered a new phase; for example, we have started with the construction of Edge data centres that enable low latency and data security. We are talking about smaller data centres in existing sites, exploiting the capillarity of the available fibre network. Another area is smart cities and connectivity for large data centres. we already have projects under development, such as in L'Aquila. The skin change for us also goes from here.