VODAFONE and Telecom Italia (TIM) have offered concessions in an effort to allay EU antitrust concerns over their plan to create Italy's biggest mobile towers company, a filing on the European Commission website showed yesterday.

Under the deal announced in July last year, Vodafone will transfer its Italian mobile masts to Inwit, which is 60 per cent owned by TIM.

With EU antitrust regulators taking a tough line on telecoms mergers that reduce the number of players in a market from four to three, the sector is hoping that deals where operators combine towers or share networks will make it easier for them to reduce debt and share costs.

The companies submitted their offer last Friday and the EU competition enforcer yesterday extended its deadline for a decision on the deal to 6 March 6 from 21 February.

The Commission will now seek feedback from the companies' rivals and from consumers before deciding whether to accept the offer, demand further measures or open a full-scale investigation.

Reuters

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