MILAN, March 19 (Reuters) - Telecom Italia (TIM) TLIT.MI and Fastweb, the Italian arm of Swisscom SCMN.S, agreed to jointly build up to 6,000 telecom towers in Italy, the two companies said on Thursday.
The project, set up as a joint venture, will also allow third‑party investors to join at a later stage, the companies said in a statement.
The non-binding deal between TIM and Fastweb, which became Italy's leading mobile player after the 8 billion euro buyout of Vodafone VOD.L operations in the country, comes after the two rivals in January agreed to jointly roll out part of their 5G technology to avoid a duplication of investments.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina, editing by Gianluca Semeraro)
((elvira.pollina@thomsonreuters.com;))