The board of Italian state industrial holding company Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale has approved the reorganisation of the country’s telecommunications sector and sent it for preliminary approval to Treasury Minister Piero Barucci: the board says the plan, which will merge all the state telecommunications holdings into one large group which will eventually be privatised, must be approved by Barucci within 30 days; local telephone operator Societa Italiana per l’Esercizio delle Telecomunicazioni pA, which is somehow abbreviated to SIP, will merge with intercontinental operator Italcable SpA, satellite and space telecommunications group Telespazio SpA, ship-to-shore radio communications company Societa Italia Radio Marittima SpA and domestic long-distance operator Iritel SpA, which is a rather cleaner name than the old one, Azienda di Stato per i Servizi Telefonici; the new group remains under Stet, Societa Finanziaria Telefonica pA.
