2016 Italy - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Digital Media - Statistics and Analyses

Italian government awards €1.4 billion contract to extend fibre-based broadband

Italy’s large telecom market boasts one of the highest rates for mobile penetration in Europe, while the fibre-optic sector has seen significant development in recent years, both in operator investment and in regulatory measures to widen the availability of superfast broadband services. Broadband uptake is growing steadily as a result of fibre and ADSL2+ infrastructure upgrades, though the country still lags behind benchmark countries for average broadband access speeds. The government is investing €4 billion to provide superfast broadband across the country, with a major contract recently awarded to the utility Enel to roll out fibre in six regions.

The vibrant mobile market has undergone considerable changes since 2016. For some years it was dominated by three operators, TIM, Vodafone Italia and Wind, with the fourth player 3 Italia having steadily made progress with securing customers to its network. The owners of 3 Italia and Wind in mid-2015 agreed to merge their units, a process which gained regulatory clearance in October 2016. The new merged entity, trading as Wind Tre, began offering services in January 2017. As a result of the merger the market gained a new entrant in the form of Iliad, which secured access to spectrum and to Wind Tre’s infrastructure to enable it to offer services while its own network is being developed.

All providers operate LTE networks, and significant investments in network upgrades have led to considerable growth in mobile data and high-end applications. Telecom Italia has also trialled LTE broadcast technology and is cooperating with Huawei and Ericsson to develop a platform for 5G services.

This report analyses the key aspects of the Italian telecom market, providing the latest data and statistics on the country and the fixed network services sector. It also reviews the key regulatory issues including number portability and local loop unbundling. In addition, the report assesses the broadband market, including the burgeoning fibre sector, regulatory measures aimed at increasing the availability of services, and the status of government infrastructure in the sector. It also provides broadband forecasts to 2021. The report reviews the mobile market, including statistics, key regulatory issues, an assessment of mobile data services and an evaluation of the market following the merger of Wind and 3 Italia and the market entry of Iliad.

Key developments:

• Wind and 3 Italia begin operations as Wind Tre;
• EC evaluates Rome smart grid deployment;
• TIM commits to deliver FttP/FttB to an additional 138 cities by 2018;
• EOF secures €1.4 billion government contract to provide fibre-based broadband to six regions;
• Fastweb delivering 500Mb/s service to 7.5 million premises;
• SINFI infrastructure registry helping to reduce cost of deploying fibre by a third;
• Milan’s Metroweb acquired by Enel;
• Fastweb joins TIM in fibre venture;
• Vodafone extends LTE coverage 90% of the population;
• TIM trials LTE broadcast technology, preps for 5G applications and services;
• Regulator extends 3G licences to 2029 and GSM licences to 2027;
• Broadcasters move from DVB-MHP to the HTML-5 based HbbTV 2.0 format;
• TivùSat reports over 2.6 million active cards;
• Report update includes the regulator’s market data to September 2016, telcos’ operating and financial data to Q3 2016, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Telecom Italia (TIM), Fastweb, Wind Tre, Wind telecom, BT Italia, Tiscali, Metroweb, Fastweb, Vodafone, Wind, Sky Italia, TivùSat.