Italy's TIM CEO says confident unified network project will be finalised

MILAN (Reuters) - Telecom Italia's (TIM) <TLIT.MI> chief remains confident that a government-sponsored plan to create a unified network champion helping Italy to accelerate broadband development will be finalised, he said on Wednesday.

"Broadband plans in Italy are very ambitious," TIM CEO Luigi Gubitosi said at a webcast event. "If the government-sponsered project to create a unified network champion is finalised, and I trust it will, broadband development will accelerate further."

TIM and state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, which is the second largest shareholder in the former phone monopoly, agreed a preliminary deal to merge TIM's network assets with those of state-backed ultrabroadband firm Open Fiber under a government-sponsored project to reduce Italy's digital divide with the rest of Europe.

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; editing by Agnieszka Flak)