Italy’s award of a third mobile phone tender has hit another snag. The country’s Post and Telecommunications Ministry delayed once again the long-awaited process until February due to an October dispute in the government over budget issues.
Italy’s telecom ministry plans to tender an 1800 MHz license, which it previously scheduled for September. Originally, the ministry planned to offer the tender last fall with a winner expected that December. However, the ministry postponed the process until March and then delayed it again, reportedly for technical reasons.
More recently, the path for the tender was cleared when the Italian upper house of parliament passed a decree in July to set the tender in motion again, based on a draft of urgent measures written by the telecom ministry.
Interested bidders have complained that the delays have given the existing Global System for Mobile communications cellular operators, Telecom Italia Mobile and Omnitel Pronto Italia, more time to strengthen their positions in expectation of this added competition.
The delays have prompted at least one interested bidding member, GTE Corp., to drop out of the process. Consortia that still appear to be interested in the license include Albacom-a joint venture between British Telecommunications plc, Banca Nazionale Lavoro SpA, the state-controlled oil company ENI and the Italian broadcaster Mediaset SpA-and Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG with the Italian electric utility ENEL SpA.
