Swisscom’s Fastweb called on the European Commission to evaluate Iliad’s proposal to create a new entrant in Italy, after it missed out to the French operator on a deal for assets freed up by the proposed merger between 3 Italy and Wind.

In a statement, Fastweb, which operates fixed services in the country, confirmed it had been working on a plan in recent months to establish “the fourth fully infrastructure operator” in Italy.

The plan, it said, was “suitable to promote competition and the digital development of the country, providing significant investments as has always been the case since its inception”.

“We hope that Iliad’s proposal can guarantee the same level of investment and development and we ask that it is submitted to consultation of the market by the Commission,” added Fastweb.

As of last week, Fastweb was in a two horse race with Iliad for the assets resulting from the proposed deal between CK Hutchison’s 3 Italy and VimpelCom’s Wind, which is still going through the EC’s approval process.

Iliad then confirmed it had inked the deal earlier this week, which would include €450 million worth of spectrum, cell sites and infrastructure for rural coverage, should the 3 Italy/Wind deal get the green light.

This, Iliad said, will allow it to “offer competitive mobile services and become the fourth mobile operator with nationwide coverage”.

Hutchison and VimpelCom are looking to avoid the situation which saw the collapse of the proposed merger of Hutchison and Telefonica’s mobile businesses in the UK, against a backdrop of European concern about the removal of an operator from the market.

Fastweb continued that its proposal envisaged coverage of 100 per cent of Italy with 4G and 5G ready technologies, which would leverage capillary fibre infrastructure, and said the project was deemed suitable by the commission.

According to France’s Les Echos, Iliad’s investment could reach up to €1.5 billion.