MIAMI – Telecom Italia has conducted meetings with TIM Brazil team to sooth employee concerns about the telecom operator’s future following a scandal that resulted in its Brazilian CEO resigning. In talks with Brazilian press during the Amdocs InTouch event held this week in Miami, Flavio Lang, the chief marketing officer at TIM Brazil, said TIM Brazil’s C-level team has remained the same.
Former CEO Luca Luciani resigned earlier this month in the wake of allegations that Telecom Italia exaggerated its customer base through the use of irregular SIM cards in Italy.
Telecom Italia named CFO Andrea Mangoni as interim CEO for Brazil, a clear indication of Brazil’s importance to the group. Mangoni has not yet started in the CEO role.
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“Telecom Italia had a meeting with the Brazilian team to calm down and to stress that our strategy keeps on the road,” said Lang, who also noted all plans scheduled for this year, such as its high-speed broadband service offering, will not be changed.
“We are not afraid of what happened in Italia to impact or to have consequences in the Brazilian operations,” Lang said.
Luciani stepped down after Italian prosecutors targeted him in an investigation into Telecom Italia’s alleged use of fake client numbers and SIM cards to inflate the appearance of its Italian customer base.
Luciani has not been charged with any crime, but his name emerged last month following the conclusion of a five-year probe into the fraudulent activation of about 37,000 SIM cards, some which were issued to deceased or fictitious users.
Amdocs provided travel expenses to this event.