Italian Telecom and Fastweb+Vodafone will share the 5G network

Italian telecom company TIM announced a 5G network sharing agreement with Fastweb and Vodafone, aiming to accelerate the rollout of 5G to over half of Italy’s population.

This 5G wireless access network (RAN) sharing project brings together Italy’s two largest operators by subscriber count, extending 5G services to sparsely populated areas of the country.

By the end of 2028, the shared RAN will include 15,500 sites. These 5G sites will consist of a mix of existing and newly built stations, deployed across ten regions of the country in towns with populations of fewer than 35,000.

The preliminary agreement requires each operator to build and operate half of the proposed RAN sites while utilizing the other party’s access network. The shared model is expected to involve active RAN components such as antennas, radio frequency units, and baseband units.

The operator stated that this model enables it to “maintain complete business autonomy and technological independence.” By eliminating redundant network construction, they also claimed efficiency gains will extend 5G to “low-density and underserved areas.”.

The network cooperation agreement is expected to be finalized in the second quarter of 2026. The transaction will subsequently require regulatory approvals from the Italian Ministry for Enterprises and “Made in Italy” (MIMIT), the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM), and the Agency for the Information Society and Telecommunications (AGCom).

The intricate Italian cooperation relationship

The 5G RAN sharing protocol is the latest collaboration in the rapidly changing telecommunications market in Italy.

Fastweb+Vodafone completed the acquisition of Vodafone Italia through Swisscom (owner of Fastweb) at the beginning of last year, surpassing TIM to become the largest operator in Italy. According to Omdia, sister company of Light Reading, as of the end of September 2025, Fastweb+Vodafone has 33.1 million mobile users and TIM has 28.4 million users. Next are WindTre with 26.8 million users and Iliad with 12.4 million users.

WindTre and Iliad have their own mobile network sharing 50-50 joint venture called Zefiro Net, which will be launched in early 2023 and cover approximately 27% of the population.

As early as 2019, Vodafone Italia reached a network sharing agreement with Telecom Italia.

For Fastweb+Vodafone, the 5G RAN sharing project with TIM will be promoted in parallel with the merged continuous network integration plan.

Fastweb was once a mobile virtual network operator, initially operating on the TIM network and later on the WindTre network. Max Gasparoni, Chief Technology Officer of Fastweb+Vodafone, stated in an email statement to Light Reading that since the acquisition of Vodafone in January 2025, “the majority of Fastweb’s mobile customers have migrated to Vodafone’s mobile network.

At present, the operator is continuing to promote the integration of network and IT systems.

In a statement, he said, “After the legal merger was completed at the end of December, we have begun coordinating and integrating our systems and network nodes as part of a multi-year integration and modernization plan aimed at enhancing services and achieving synergies.”

The latest network sharing agreement also follows Telecom Italia’s decision to award Nokia a three-year contract to expand 5G network coverage and increase capacity, seemingly taking a considerable market share from European competitor Ericsson, as reported by Light Reading, marking another shift in the Italian mobile market.