Fastweb + Vodafone terminates agreement with INWIT (updated)

Vodafone

25/03/2026 06:58

Contract ended over INWIT's high tower costs

INWIT plans legal action against termination

Telecom Italia expected to follow Fastweb's move

Recasts with details from Inwit statement, adds background

By Elvira Pollina and Emanuele  Berro

MILAN, March 25 (Reuters) - Swisscom's SCMN.S Italian arm Fastweb on Wednesday terminated its long-term contract with INWIT INWT.MI, escalating a spat with the country's top telecom towers company.

Fastweb, which inherited the contract with INWIT through its acquisition of Vodafone Italy last year, had been pushing to renegotiate the agreement, a move that the tower company had resisted.

As part of efforts to lower its lease costs, Fastweb last week announced a joint venture with Telecom Italia (TIM) TLIT.MI - INWIT's other main customer - to build up to 6,000 telecoms towers in Italy.

TIM, which was also seeking to renegotiate with INWIT, will
likely mirror Fastweb's decision to end its deal with the tower operator, with a move expected at a board meeting over the weekend, sources told Reuters.

"The decision to terminate the master service agreement stems from INWIT's tower costs being above market level and its refusal to engage in formal negotiations to align with standard market conditions," Fastweb said.

INWIT, whose shares fell as much as 10% on Wednesday and were down 5.7% as of 1245 GMT, said Fastweb's move had no legal basis and said it would file an urgent request to a Milan court to block it.

The long-term contracts under which INWIT's 25,000 masts across Italy hosts the antennas of the two telecoms operators make up the bulk of the tower company's 1-billion-euro ($1.16 billion) revenue.

Born as a spin-off of TIM's mobile tower assets, INWIT merged with Vodafone's Italian mast business in 2020. Its leading investors are infrastructure fund Ardian and Vantage Towers VTWRn.H.

($1 = 0.8629 euros)

 (Reporting by Emanuele Berro and Elvira Pollina,
Editing by Ludwig Burger and Alvise Armellini)

 ((Emanuele.Berro@thomsonreuters.com; +48 587696510))