Telecom Italia goes quadplay with Sky

Italian incumbent Telecom Italia (TI) has announced the introduction of the country’s first quadplay offering, by partnering with Sky to deliver TV content, internet, mobile and landline services.

The strategic partnership between the telco and TV giants involved fibre-optic based cable TV, which TI claims is the first time the service has been seen in Italy. The announcement is another indication that the telecoms industry is moving increasingly towards convergence, as has been seen by a number of acquisitions and strategic partnerships announced so far this year.

TI says the convergence between media and telecoms means that Italians will benefit from integrated landline and mobile services, broadband and ultra-broadband connectivity and premium television content available on all connected devices.

The converged service offerings will be available to all Telecom Italia customers with a minimum subscription of 20 Mbps ADSL, up to 100 Mbps fibre-optic connection.

CEO of Telecom Italia, Marco Patuano, reckons future strategic visions for the telco rely heavily on developing content-rich services for consumers, and sees partnerships such as the one with Sky as integral to that vision.

“Today, in Italy, with Sky, we are starting a new collaboration model between Telco and Media Companies that allows us to go to the market with a fully convergent offer,” he said. “We are convinced that this strategic deal is an important driver for the development of the new ultra‐broadband networks and of the innovative technologies that are at the core of our business plan featuring more than 5 billion euros investments for the three years period 2015‐2017. We are particularly pleased with this partnership as it allows our customers to access exclusive and high quality content thanks to Telecom Italia’s technological expertise and Sky’s editorial richness”.

The Telecoms.com Intelligence Annual Industry Survey 2015 highlighted convergence as one of the key trends emerging in the telecoms sector. Of the 2,000+ respondents to the survey, 64% reckon operators that offer pay TV as well as fixed/mobile broadband have a better proposition than those that don’t; 66% believe multiplay operators will have achieved significant advantage over pureplay operators within five years; and 72% of respondents consider OTT partnerships to provide competitive advantage against other operators.