Telecoms: Italy

The regional IT and telecommunications provider Infracom bought Netscalibur Italia, a Milan-based provider of carrier services, housing and networking solutions for € 27 million.

During the first half of 2006 Elitel registered 61% growth in turnover compared to same period in 2005, to € 101,4 million. The Group has launched new services in particular in the wholesale area with the introduction of the pre paid cards and the signing of agreements for the distribution of the cards.

According to the report published by Assinform, the Italian telecommunications market (services + terminals + equipment) grew in the first six months of 2006 to € 21,950 million (+0,6% over 1H 2005).

Wind decided to abolish any extra fee to its pre-paid customer paying for a recharge. If they pay €50, they will get a €50 value (rather than only €45 as before).

Fastweb and Sky Italia, the Italian satellite operator fully owned by News Corporation, have today announced a major joint partnership agreement regarding content distribution and co-marketing.

BT’s Italian subsidiary finally changed its brand to simply BT Italia, abandoning the previously used ‘Albacom’ brand.

Pirelli Broadband Solutions is supplying dual-mode GSM/Wi-Fi handsets to German operator Arcor (part of Vodafone group) and French operator Free (part of Iliad group).

By the end of the month, Vodafone Italia will sell a new UMTS handset with its own brand, with no reference at all to the manufacturer of the phone.
Actually, the new VF710 phone has been designed to Vodafone specification and manufactured by Huawei Technologies in China.

The Italian subsidiary of Skype is recruiting new people and is expected to launch the SkypeIn service using nomadic numbering according to the new VoIP regulation.

After having recently disposed also of its Dutch operation, Tiscali announced a new three-year plan (2007- 2010) focusing on Italy and the UK only.
According to an official statement of the Board of Directors,

Tiscali will transition from Isp to full-service provider, delivering telecommunication and media integrated services to the end customer (with the relevant expansion on the physical access, voice and Iptv markets), through a full network and service IP model combining product innovation and marketing aggressiveness.

Telecom Italia is rolling out Alice Messenger, also dubbed "Super SMS", an instant messaging service that runs on both mobile phones and PCs.
The service works just like fixed-line instant messaging on PCs and it supports “presence”, a notice pops up on the mobile phone screen to show when somebody on the user’s contact list comes online.

TIM is boosting its UMTS network’s speed to 3.6 Mbit/s

High speed UMTS has been rolled out in Italy’s largest cities in May 2006 using HSDPA at 1.8 Mbit/s maximum rate. In November, TIM will start selling next-generation mobile phones and PC Cards capable of 3.6 Mbit/s connections.

The Board of Directors of Telecom Italia officially announced today that:

the company intends to launch the transformation of the access network into a New Generation Network, enabling the transmission of high-definition television programmes, movies, music and video, as well as business and public services (tele-medicine, info-mobility etc.).
The “Next Generation Network” will also involve the separation from Telecom Italia of the access network, according to a model to be jointly developed with the Authority.

Starting next January, Vodafone will allow its customers to handle both mobile calls and fixed lines calls using the same handset, even for customers not owning a fixed line.
Thanks to number portability’s regulation, even customers cancelling their fixed line subscription will be able to continue using their mobile handset to answer calls directed to their ported fixed line number.