Telecom Italia (TIM) has signed a commercial agreement with Open Fiber to provide the rival broadband network company with access to its infrastructure to speed up the rollout of fibre in the more remote parts of Italy.
Under the deal Open Fiber will pay 200 million euros ($208 million) to use TIM’s network infrastructure in the hard-to-reach areas.

The tie-up comes at a time when TIM and Open Fiber’s top investor, state lender CDP – which also has a 10 percent stake in TIM – are in talks to clinch a preliminary agreement to merge the former phone monopoly’s network infrastructure with those of state backed rival.