Italian cellco Iliad has hit the milestone of having rolled out 1,000 of its own antennas, 18 months after its launch as the country’s fourth mobile network operator (MNO). A report from Mobile World, citing data from LTEItaly, says that the French-owned firm now has 1,061 active antennas, which is well behind more established operators TIM, Wind Tre and Vodafone which each have more than 18,000 sites in service.
Iliad’s CEO Benedetto Levi recently told La Stampa that the cellco was hoping to have 3,500 sites installed by the end of this year and between 10,000 and 12,000 by 2024. While it builds out its own network, Iliad is roaming on Wind Tre infrastructure under a five-year wholesale deal.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Iliad had 3.84 million subscribers and 5.5% of the overall Italian mobile market at the end of June 2019.