Sharing infrastructure is good for the economy and the environment. A study highlights the benefits in the telecommunications sector.
What connects the world of telecommunications to that of air transport? Imagine the environmental impact of a flight between Rome and New York. Then imagine replicating that intercontinental journey 1.7 million times. We are talking about emissions equivalent to more than 2.5 million tonnes of CO2, avoided in Italy between 2015 and 2024 in the mobile telecommunications sector thanks to the sharing model. The decision to separate infrastructure from services, taken by our country exactly ten years ago, has enabled significant economic benefits for the system and for operators: the sharing of infrastructure among mobile operators has, by avoiding duplication of assets, made it possible to limit environmental impacts and negative externalities, while improving the accessibility and capillarity of services. This picture emerges from the study "Il valore di Inwit per l'Italia", conducted for Inwit by The European House Ambrosetti, which measures the territorial impacts of Italy's leading tower operator and one of its foremost digital infrastructure companies — a business that builds and manages digital, multi-operator infrastructure for mobile telecommunications.
The analysis — presented during Sustainability Day 2025, the event organised annually by Inwit to engage with its stakeholders — is structured in two parts. The first, focused on quantifying the value associated with the separation of infrastructure from services, assesses the impacts generated by the infrastructure-sharing business model in the mobile telecommunications sector. The second, by contrast, measures the value generated by Inwit for the national system from an economic, social, cognitive and environmental standpoint.
Between 2015 and 2024, the sharing of mobile telecommunications towers made it possible to save land and material and energy resources, limiting the construction of additional digital infrastructure and, with it, avoiding the emission of more than 2.5 million tonnes of CO2; costs avoided for telecommunications operators furthermore amount to 15.8 billion euros. "This study — explained Inwit's managing director Diego Galli — highlights how the digital and shared infrastructure business model has a positive impact on GDP, employment and the wider supply chain, creating value for the telco sector and local communities. Inwit continues to invest in its multi-operator infrastructure network, which enables connectivity and the digital transformation of the country."
The second part of the study focuses instead on the company's business model, based on mobile and multi-operator digital infrastructure, which generates a positive impact across the supply chain and throughout the country. Taking into account the economic activation along the entire supply chain, the company generated a total impact on Italian GDP of approximately 1.3 billion euros in 2024 alone, and a cumulative impact over the period 2020–2024 of 5.3 billion euros. This growth trajectory has been supported by an increasing commitment to investment, focused in particular on the development of the infrastructure network, digitalisation and technological innovation. Between 2015 and 2024, Inwit's cumulative investments in Italy reached 1.4 billion euros, with a further 1.5 billion euros planned for the period 2025–2030, bringing the overall total to approximately 2.9 billion euros.
During the event, Giulia Staderini, chair of Inwit's Sustainability Committee, highlighted "the importance of integrating sustainability into the infrastructure business model, taking into account the interests of all relevant stakeholders and paying particular attention, in the conduct of business activities, to social and environmental impacts on an equal footing with economic ones." Among the concrete examples of this approach, in 2024 Inwit activated an extensive network of economic supply chains across the national territory, working with more than 550 Italian suppliers for a total value of supplies and sub-supplies of 272.1 million euros, distributed across all regions. Furthermore, the company has at least one of its towers in more than 70 per cent of Italian municipalities classified as having high social and economic vulnerability, with the aim of ensuring access to essential digital services even in the most fragile areas. With regard to its contribution to employment, in 2024 the company supported a total of approximately 3,200 jobs in Italy: for every direct employee, a further 8.7 jobs are generated along the connected economic supply chains. Finally, on the environmental front, thanks to the optimisation of energy use and the adoption of targeted technological solutions, between 2020 and 2024 the company avoided energy consumption equivalent to the annual needs of more than 11,000 households.