While there was little detail behind the announcement, the Italian government plans to spend €12 billion in speeding up Italian broadband, which we feel could invite an intense round of broadband competition across Italy. The story was carried last week by Advanced TV News, and the €12 billion is made up by €7 billion of government money, and €5 billion from industrial partners. The story comes from a report of a speech by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who said that €2.2 billion would be made available immediately, which suggests that the spending will come over roughly 3 years and that he is looking for operators to stump up something like €1.5 billion now. So who are the candidates? The first…