Italy: Telecom Italia bows to regulatory pressure, pulls TIM Prime

Telecom Italia on Wednesday suspended its new TIM Prime tariff plan pending the outcome of negotiations with the regulator and competition authority.

The Italian incumbent introduced the offer in February, but last month telecoms regulator Agcom ruled that it violated the country’s electronic communications code and passed the case on to Italy’s competition watchdog, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato.

“The company, with the primary aim of maintaining complete transparency towards its customers and ensuring an open, serene and constructive dialogue with the authorities, announces that it has suspended the application of TIM Prime, while waiting to start discussions with the authorities regarding the matter and aimed at launching new and better services,” Telecom Italia said, in a brief statement.

Core to Agcom’s objection was the fact that TIM Prime was positioned by Telecom Italia as a simple reshaping of its basic mobile price plan. However, under the plan users pay €0.49 per week for unlimited calls and SMS to a number of their choice, as well as receiving various other benefits, which the regulator deemed to be a new tariff, rather than a modification of an existing plan.

TIM Prime would result in “an increase in excess of €2 per month for millions of users of the service,” Agcom complained.

Full content: Telecompaper

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