MILAN - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has given cabinet undersecretary Alessio Butti powers to oversee Rome's strategic policies to develop ultra-fast broadband networks, a government decree seen by showed on Friday.
The move comes ahead of an end-November deadline for state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) to decide whether to submit a preliminary offer for Telecom Italia's (TIM) landline grid, under a plan championed by Meloni's predecessor Mario Draghi.
The multi-billion euro offer would be part of a broader plan to merge TIM's network with smaller rival Open Fiber, which is controlled by CDP.
Butti criticised such a plan and called on CDP to take control of TIM as a way to pursue the goal of combining the former phone monopoly network assets with those of Open Fiber.
TIM's top investor is French media company Vivendi with a 24% stake and the second largest is CDP with a 10% stake.
Meloni's office declined to comment.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)