Telecoms: Italy

A survey by the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano showed that the value of e-commerce transactions in Italy grew 42%, reaching a value of 2.8 billion €. Roberto Liscia, president of Netcomm, the company that oversaw the survey, said that in 2006 the Italian e-commerce market is expected to grow a further 45%, topping a value of 4 billion €.

The Italian National Regulatory Authorithy (AGCOM) declared that the wholesale international roaming market is Italy is competitive.
Therefore, it will not impose any more specific regulations to Italian mobile operators selling wholesale roaming services to foreign operators.

EBay.it grew by 150% in 2005, said country manager Alessandro Coppo at an e-commerce conference organized by Politecnico di Milano. Value of traded goods reached 466 million € for the Italian subsidiary, the fastest growing one in the eBay world.

Telespazio announced the availability of a new hi-res interactive mapping service developed by Seat Pagine Gialle that leverages its satellite images, aerial images and advanced interactive technology to deliver a rich multimedia experience

After a seven years long legal battle, Telecom Italia is getting back around 500 millions € from the Italian State for a previous tax charge (3% on revenues) declared illegal. In a similar court case, Vodafone won the right to get back 190 millions €.

M2M specialist Telit Communications, headquartered in Trieste, is to open a new research center in Sardinia. The new site is co-financed by the Italian State that granted the company €11.4 million and a €14.1 million loan facility.

Fastweb reported approximately 874,000 customers at 30 June 2006, an increase of approximately 160,000 subscribers in the first half of the year.

Telecom Italia sold to Turk Telekom its 40.5% shareholding in AVEA for a total price of $ 500 million.

The National Regulatory Authority (AGCOM) said is it is investigating the access charges applied by mobile network operators to directory services.

The 6th annual European wholesale telecommunications congress organized by Capacity's magazine will take place in Amsterdam on 13 & 14 November 2006.

Local utility company Selene deployed first in Italy a PLC (Power Line Communication) broadband commercial service in Brescia, a mid-size city in Northern Italy.

Starting from next October, Telecom Italia will add a 2 Mbit/s (256 kbit/s upstream) option to its ATM-based ADSL wholesale service.

A new rule set by the National Regulatory Authority (AGCOM) forces all fixed operators and ISPs to measure their quality of service according to a common policy.

Metroweb, a company controlled by the city of Milan, is considering selling its fiber optic and cable duct metropolitan infrastructure.

Italian mobile users don’t like to have their mobile number published on a phone directory. Just 0,22% of subscribers chose to publish their mobile number.

Italian network operator Elitel has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with FON Wireless Limited in order to support Wi-Fi access sharing over broadband lines.

As of June 2006, Vodafone Italia has 24.146.000 customers, 2% more than it had at end of 2005.
UMTS users grew 43% to 3.196.000.

Elitel Telecom today announced that it has acquired a controlling share of Alpikom, regional telecom operator based in North Eastern Italy.

In the first half of 2006, Telecom Italia’s fixed wireline division reported domestic revenues of € 8,550 million (1,2% lower than in 1H 2005).
TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile) domestic operation reported revenues of € 4,982 million (1,1 % higher than in 1H 2005).

Italian IP technology will help to better manage the interconnection between the French and British power grids.

Utilities network’s specialist Selta won a half a million € contract from RTE to design an advanced substations automation and remote control system based on IP communications

As of end of April 2006, more than 8 million mobile numbers have been ported in Italy.