Although the Italian government awarded fixed telephony licenses last week to two companies, confusion and frustration continue to surround the decision to bestow a much-delayed third mobile phone license.
The Italian Senate is said to have set a May 31 deadline for the Ministry of Communications to select an operator for the 1800 MHz personal communications services license, but not even the several consortia vying for the license have been able to confirm whether this date was cited to them as an end to their long wait.
The chairman of the Wind consortium, one of the groups awarded the fixed telephony license and also a contestant for the mobile license, has been quoted in the London Financial Times as urging the government to award the license before the May deadline. The consortium’s business plan is “to be the first company in Italy to offer convergence between fixed and mobile telephony,” said Michel Bon, chairman and chief executive of consortium member France Telecom Group. As such, Wind’s entire organizational structure is subject to whether it is granted the mobile license. As such, the consortium is essentially waiting for the outcome before launching commercial operations.
Officials at Price Waterhouse, which is advising the Wind consortium on the tender, said nobody has any clue when the tender will actually occur. Reports from Italy are that, despite the Senate decree, the tender may not take place until the second half of the year.
Interested bidders have expressed concern that the many delays only allow those currently providing service to strengthen their positions. As the government “drags its feet” in awarding the third license, thousands of mobile phone customers select service from the existing operators Telecom Italian Mobile and Omnitel-Pronto Italia when they could be considering a third operator.
The tender originally was scheduled for the fall of 1996, then for last summer, then was moved to last September and again rescheduled until the end of March or April.
Interested bidders include a consortium led by British Telecommunications plc and consisting of Mediaset S.p.A, Norway’s national phone company Telenor and an Italian bank, among others; and Wind, made up of Deutsche Telekom AG, France Telecom and the Italian energy company Enel.
Italy is the fourth largest telecom market in Europe and that market is expected to grow significantly in the next decade.
