EIB steunt investeringen van Telecom Italia in Italië en in Duitsland (en)
BEI/07/126
Luxembourg, 30 November 2007
EIB supports Telecom Italia investments in Italy and in Germany
The European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU's financing institution, is supporting Telecom Italia (TI) group's investments in Italy and Germany with two loans for a total of EUR 382 million.
A first tranche of EUR 200 million of a total approved loan of EUR 400 ("Telecom Italia RDI loanâ€) is aimed at research, development and innovation (RDI) activities carried out by TI in Italy.
A EUR 182 million loan will support the investments made by TI's fully owned German subsidiary HanseNet Telekommunikation GmbH (HanseNet) to finance the migration of recently acquired customers (Internet Service Provider AOL) and the necessary network and support system expansions.
"Telecom sectors with state-of-the-art technological solutions and infrastructure, a competitive environment and advanced services, are major contributors to boosting productivity, employment and economic growthâ€, said EIB's Vice President Dario Scannapieco while signing the two loans in Rome. "These projects are clearly in line with the EIB's objective of furthering the Information Society through the support of RDI investments and the competitive supply of advanced broadband servicesâ€, he added.
The Telecom Italia RDI loan will contribute to develop TI's innovative Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, hardware and software applications as well as facilitating improved Internet, multimedia and telecom services. In addition, it will support the development of services that stimulate the further development of broadband communications infrastructure and support European competitiveness in the ICT sector, with benefits to the wider economy.
The research is focused on new technologies and advanced network architectures. The development and innovation activities concern tailor-made IT (Information Technology) systems addressing issues such as security and convergence for fixed and mobile networks.
Telecom Italia's RDI program will help to stabilise the employment level of differents units involving about 1,600 researchers.
The entire telecommunications market in Italy is expected to grow only about 1.6% annually until 2009. While the fixed line business is even expected to decline by 2% annually, the mobile business is supposed to grow by 2.1%. The highest growth rates are expected for Pay-TV (12.1%) and ICT (4.6%).
The EUR 182 million loan to HanseNet will enhance competition amongst internet service providers in Germany which will positively influence the availability and quality of service especially in remote areas in East Germany. About 17 % of the investments will be located in five convergence regions.
The objective of the project is to expand the network capacity and coverage in order to absorb the 2 million additional AOL subscribers without interrupting their existing service. Furthermore, there are plans to gradually migrate the subscribers from the former AOL services to the own products and upgrade to value added services.
HanseNet initially started as a fixed line city carrier in the Hamburg area only. In 2003 it was acquired by Telecom Italia and the focus was expanded to the whole of Germany. The main product is a bundled voice service together with a DSL-based broadband Internet access. At end of 2006 the broadband customer base was 929,000 lines (548,000 lines in 2005).
The broadband market is growing fast in Germany. At the end of 2006 there were 14.9 m broadband connections, compared to 11.5 m in 2005. By 2009 some 22.4 m subscribers are expected.
Note for the editor:
The European Investment Bank Group, the banking group promoting European objectives, finances capital investment aimed at modernising the economies of the Member States and the countries neighbouring the Union.
In 2006, the European Investment Bank lent a total of EUR 45.8 bn for projects promoting the European Union's policy objectives. Finance for the then EU-25 Member States represented 87% of its activities and amounted to EUR 39.8 bn. To fund its activities, the EIB raised an aggregate amount of EUR 48 bn on the international capital markets through 303 bond issues in 24 currencies. Owned by the Member States, the EIB (AAA issuer) is the largest supranational issuer.
This was the first full year in which the new strategy decided by the EIB's Governors in June 2005 was implemented. This qualitative strategy based on investment and financial innovation consists of:
strengthening the leverage of the EIB's operations;
concentrating its financing within the Union on six European priorities;
fostering economic convergence between the Union and its partner countries.
Contacts:
For further information, please contact the Information and Communication Department, Helen Kavvadia, Senior Communications Officer, (tel.: +352 4379-3144, fax: +352 4379-3188, website: http://www.eib.org ). For all matters relating to procurement, the promoter should be contacted directly.