Global Insight Perspective | |
Significance | Italy plans to issue WiMAX licences in June 2006. |
Implications | FastWeb, Teleunit, Tiscali and Telecom Italia are likely to be interested. |
Outlook | 2007 should see greater commercial deployments in Europe, but take-up will be slow among the mass market. |
Italy's Communications Ministry has announced that it will begin selling licences based on WiMAX-ready frequencies by June 2007. The ministry issued two press releases earlier this week regarding this. The first announced that the Communications and Defence Ministries had reached agreement on freeing up frequencies for WiMAX. The second propagated the benefits of WiMAX in Italy (bridging the digital divide) and set out plans to issue licences in the 3.4 GHz to 3.6 GHz bands. The method of sale (auction or beauty contest) and type of licences (regional or national) have yet to be decided and this will take place after consultation with Agcom, the country's telecoms regulator, and the public.
FastWeb, Italy's leading alternative operator, has already expressed interest in WiMAX frequencies, which can be used for both fixed and mobile high-speed internet, voice and multimedia services. Other likely bidders are—Teleunit, which in May 2006, together with the equipment vendor, Italtel, won a test WiMAX licence for Florence—Tiscali and Telecom Italia.
Outlook and Implications
- All aboard WiMAX: The WiMAX announcement came at around the same time Germany issued regional WiMAX licences to five operators (see Germany: 28 December 2006: German Government Awards Five WiMAX Licences). In July, France issued regional WiMAX licences to 15 companies and six regional councils (see France: 11 July 2006: Regional WiMAX Licences Granted in France). In the United Kingdom, UK Broadband, a unit of PCCW, holds Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) licences in the 3.4 GHz band, while Pipex also holds a FWA licence in the 3.6 GHz to 4.2 GHz band. In November 2006, Ofcom, the U.K. telecoms regulator, also announced proposals to auction 215 MHz of spectrum in the 2,500-2,690 MHz, 2,010-2,025 MHz and 2,290-2,300 MHz bands. This spectrum is "technology neutral", so can be used to deploy a range of technologies and services including WiMAX, Mobile TV, W-CDMA-evolution 3G and mobile broadcast.
- Room for Competition in Broadband Market: According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Italy had 7.4 million broadband subscriber lines at the end of March 2006. Of these, 66.8% were retailed (xDSL) by Telecom Italia, 13.9% were retailed by third party ISPs under a wholesale arrangement with Telecom Italia, 14.7% were provisioned by LLU, 3.2% by FTTx and 1.5% by satellite. Broadband penetration of households was about 32.4% at the end of March 2006.
- WiMAX Prospects in 2007: 2006 was the year of hype for WiMAX, but 2007 will see further deployments. However, in Europe at least, the fixed and mobile variants of WiMAX will gain a limited share of the mass consumer markets (see World: 20 December 2006: Global Telecoms Predictions for 2007).