Vodafone Italy head says a single network should not be controlled by Telecom Italia

ROME (Reuters) - A merger of telephone networks in Italy is something that can be considered as long as control does not end up with Telecom Italia (TIM) <TLIT.MI>, the head of Vodafone's Italian operations said on Friday.

"By way of alternative to infrastructure competition, a merger of networks could be taken into consideration providing governance control is not actually in the hands of TIM," Aldo Bisio said at a conference.

TIM is pressing ahead with plans to find investors to help it fund a tie-up with smaller broadband rival Open Fibre to create a single national fibre network player.

(Reporting by Andrea Ciociola, editing by Stephen Jewkes)