March 15 (Reuters) - Swisscom said on Friday it will buy Vodafone Italia for 8 billion euros ($8.70 billion)to merge the business with its Italian subsidiary Fastweb.

The deal will create Italy's second-biggest fixed-line broadband operator behind TIM, with a strong presence in the prized business segment, and a leading player in mobile.

($1 = 0.9194 euros) (Reporting by John Revill, editing by Linda Pasquini)