Telecom Italia (TIM) has been pursuing potential alternatives to acquisition by US private equity group KKR, which submitted a €10.8bn non-binding offer in November 2021 (though formal talks only started last month). As private equity firms get increasingly interested in telcos, the trend raises the question of how far they might change the culture and operational approach of European operators, possibly accelerating break-ups and cost-cutting measures, and encouraging a stronger focus on physical infrastructure (currently highly valued by markets) as opposed to digital services. One alternative for TIM may be to revive a long-standing plan to create a single fiber network in Italy via a merger of its own fixed operations with those of state-backed Open Fiber. Last week, it…