Italian broadband company Fastweb and the Italian unit of mobile phone giant Vodafone on Friday will announce a commercial agreement, sources familiar with the deal told Reuters.

Vodafone's clients will be able to use some broadband services supplied by Fastweb, the sources said. They did not provide details on the value of the deal.

The deal will not involve Vodafone buying broadband capacity wholesale, but it is a step for both companies towards offering both mobile and fixed line services, the sources said.

Spokeswomen for both companies declined to comment. The chief executives of the two companies are due to hold a news conference in Milan later on Friday.

Milan based Fastweb, Italy's second largest telecommunications operator, has a network that covers most of Italy.

Fastweb has been able to take lucrative contracts from rival Telecom Italia, including two public administration deals worth more than 300 million euros a year and one to supply Internet services to Italy's largest bank, Unicredito, for three years.