Telecoms: Italy » regulation

OTA Italia: Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator Italian style

Cazzani — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:08:03 +0000

A new ”mediator” in the Italian telecom regulatory environment was born yesterday.

Modeled after the British Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator-UK, the new OTA Italia office aims to prevent fighting among incumbent Telecom Italia and other OLOs licensed to operate in the country.

This move is part of a process agreed by Telecom Italia and AGCOM regarding the transparent and independent management of the access network following the creation of Telecom Italia’s Open Access division.

The founding members of OTA Italia include the regulatory authority AGCOM, operators BT, Fastweb, Opitel, Tiscali, TWT, Vodafone, Wind, and small providers’ societies AIIP and Assoprovider.

President of OTA Italia has been named Guido Vannucchi, a 70+ years old industry veteran and a former CEO of Alcatel Italia.

Mobile termination rate’s glide-path

Cazzani — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:02:57 +0000

The National Regulatory Authority (AGCOM) published the planned “glide-path” for mobile termination rates.

Here are the new maximum termination rates to be applied in the next few years, expressed in €cent per minute.

	From July 2008 (Sep for H3G)	From July 2009	From July 2010	From July 2011
Telecom Italia	8.85	7.7	6.6	5.9
Vodafone	8.85	7.7	6.6	5.9
Wind	9.51	8.7	7.2	5.9
H3G	13.00	11.0	9.0	7.0

Asymmetric termination rate for three more years

Cazzani — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:00:31 +0000

The national regulatory authority (AGCOM) reiterated its previous decision concerning asymmetric termination rates for fixed lines operators, aimed to help infrastructure-based OLOs to recoup their investments.

Major OLOs will be allowed to charge an higher (although decreasing) interconnection rate than incumbent Telecom Italia.
From July 2010, all operators will be treated equal, with a maximum interconnection rate of 0.57 €cent per minute
Below is maximum interconnection rates for OLOs allowed in the next three years expressed in € cent per minute.

From	Fastweb	Wind	BT Italia	Tiscali	Tele2	Eutelia	Other OLOs
July 2007	2.01	1.90	1.78	1.76	1.45	1.25	1,25
July 2008	1.53	1.44	1.38	1.36	1.15	1.02	1.02
July 2009	1.05	1,01	0.97	0.97	0.86	0.80	0.80
July 2010	0.57	0.57	0.57	0.57	0.57	0.57	0.57

WiMAX license’s rules

Cazzani — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 07:57:28 +0000

The National Regulatory Authority published the rules for the WiMax licenses to be auctioned soon.

The spectrum available is a mere 150 MHz in the 3.2 – 3.6 GHz band. Spectrum will be auctioned in three blocks of 2×21 MHz each.
One of the block will not be available for any operator already owning an UMTS license.
The license will be split in macroregions (yet to be precisely defined, probably 8 to 10). Operators can bid for any macroregion they like.
The auction will be based only on monetary criteria, no beauty contest procedure is required. The base price for the auction for each macroregion will be set according the population living in the macroregion and its average GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
Each winner of the 15 year long licenses must guarantee a minimum coverage in the area within 30 months in order to keep its license.
The license can be used with any technology (basically, all WiMAX’s variants) but only to offer broadband access, backhauling through WiMAX will not be allowed.

WiMAX frequencies available from June 2007

Cazzani — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 09:53:42 +0000

After a long row amont its Ministers, the Italian government finally agreed to free 35+35 MHz in the 3.4÷3.6 Ghz band (currently used by the Armed Forces) for WiMAX use by June 2007.

The available bandwidth are expected to be auctioned next spring. The Government also plan to triple the bandwidth allocated to WiMAX within the next five years.

WiMAX licenses to be awarded on a regional basis

Cazzani — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 14:39:38 +0000

The National Regulatory Authority started a 60 days long public consultation process to better define rules for awarding the long-awaited WiMAX licenses for broadband wireless access on the 3.5 GHz band.

Apparently, the NRA is willing to use an auction process based on regional licenses, like the one adopted to award the WLL (Wireless Local Loop) licenses a few years ago. Applicants will be allowed to bid also for multi-region and nationwide licenses.