Italy
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Italy |
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view of the telecom ventures initiated by alternative
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The Italian regulation reserved
to only few subjects the monopoly for network ownership.
Only the national concessionaire was entitled to offer
network services on the market, and companies wanting to
use a network in exclusivity had to lease lines from it.
This applies to all realities except four public
utilities companies, entitled to build a network by their
own (but not entitled to offer network services on the
market). They are:
In the 1998 liberalisation perspective, on July 1st 1996 the Italian regulation has opened to the general public these alternative infrastructures, by entitling them to use their Telecommunications networks outside their group needs. From that time, the public utilities decided "to have a foot" in the Telecommunications business, through alliances, commercial agreements, direct participation. This is a further element of novelty in national bodies in view to be privatised (all except Ferrovie dello Stato).
1. Public Utilities: types of networks Enel is the national body for electricity, and its activities include: the energy production, the electric transport, and the electric distribution. The activity of energy production is performed through hydroelectric and thermoelectric power plants, while the transmission network for the electric transport is nearly 20,000 kilometres long. With regards to the activity of distribution, Enel provides electric power to about 28 million users. Enel economic data show a yearly turnover of 38,000 billion lira and a net profit of 900 billion lira. These results come from the work of 85,000 employees, that manage 56,000 megawatt of power installed. Snam is the Eni (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi) group company dealing with natural gas supply, transport and distribution (Eni is the world’s sixth largest oil and gas company in terms of sales). Snam has a methane pipelines network of about 26,000 kilometres, spread in the large majority of national territory, but also acts in the oil transport market through an own tank fleet and a Europe wide oil pipeline network. In addition, it manages a wide building patrimony, a large Telecommunications network and an air-force. The Eni group consolidated balance showed a net profit of about 4 500 billion lira in 1997 and a consolidated turnover of nearly 58 000 billion lira. Snam Spa, on its side, closed the year 1997 with a turnover of more than 16’000 billion lira and a profit of 1 400 billion Lira. Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) is the national company managing public railway transport, but FS also deals with maritime transport, both projecting and realising new lines and new plants. The railway network is nearly 16’000 kilometres long (more than 10’000 of which are electrified), with 6’000 kilometres of double line network. Traffic concentration is very high: 50% of the network absorbs more than 90% of total traffic units and more than 95% of transported tons. FS employs nearly 118 000 persons. Telecommunications activities of the railway company are attributed to the fully-owned company Tele Sistemi Ferroviari (TSF). The company has been recently reorganised into two separate units respectively in charge of the management of the network and the transportation activity. Autostrade manages, builds and maintains highway infrastructures on concession from the State. It is the largest Italian concessionaire managing directly 2,855 km of highways (56% of the entire national network) and 266 Km through 6 concessionaire highway companies. It employs about 8’000 employees. Every year 600 million vehicles, transporting approximately one and a half billion people, travel on its highways. Waiting for privatisation and the extension of service concession, Autostrade ended the year 1997 with an improved turnover and net profit, even if the operative margin decreased of 8% because of increased production costs. Recent assessments done for privatisation purpose attributes to the company Autostrade a global value of about 4 thousand billion lira. Autostrade is active in the Telecommunications business: in May 1995, the company Autostrade Telecomunicazioni was set up to manage plants and infrastructures for information technologies, telematics and Telecommunications on the Autostrade network. The activities of Autostrade Telecomunicazioni break down into:
The company exploits the motorway network as a support for an integrated system of activities and services In addition to a number of services concerning traffic information delivered to users, such as Rai-Isoradio, RTL 102,5/via Radio, Internet WEB-CAM, GSM SMS, other innovative services and products are now being delivered, namely:
The company’s keeps showing interest in telephony. 2. State of their Telecommunication Network Enel has a very advanced telecom network, in which it invests about 700 billion lira a year. Its infrastructures include a fixed network arriving at the users home and a private mobile network. Presently Enel generates a traffic of million data, entirely used for internal purposes. Enel fixed network is very rich, especially for data transmission which uses 38 terminals linked through 400 hubs and 700 multiprotocol PAD EDP. Including also voice service, globally the carrier system has a capacity of 3,200 terminals and 1,500 switches. With regards to mobile communications we can count 3,500 sites with 350 radio centres which link 27 thousand mobile phones and 15 thousand paging terminals through 9 thousand channels. Enel mobile network includes 800 radio links at 2,3 giga hertz, 450 at 18 giga hertz and one thousand at 440 megahertz. This wide network allows to manage telephone services for internal use (both fixed and mobile), to perform the telecontrol application (with a centralised supervision activity, both for generation and transmission, in a site near Rome) and to manage the huge amount of data (including also international data transmission arising from electricity exchanges with border Countries). The birth of Enel Telecomunicazioni brought to empower the network by developing the backbone Torino-Milano-Venezia-Firenze-Roma and the completion of the Adriatic side of Italy. Further steps will complete the optical network, which will leave without links only Sardinia. In this development plan a strong opportunity came out from the substitution program for the "guard" ropes, the single rope acting as a protective "umbrella" for electrical cables laying on the air. In view of the 1998 TLC deregulation, Enel decided to exploit the already planned civil works by adding an optical cable for Telecommunications purposes, thus obtaining a renewed backbone with little marginal cost. Snam manages the entire Eni group Telecommunications network with the dedicated (and fully owned) company Snam Telecommunications. This network consists of cables and optical fibre (2 400 Km) integrated in a broad system, but also of radio links and a mobile private network with 200 transmitting antennas and 3,500 terminals. Eni-Snam network covers all national territory, following gas pipelines and penetrating into the towns. The public railway company owns a 1,774 kilometres Telecommunications network consisting of optical fibre. The network follows railway lines in a large part of the country, entering also into the towns (at the railway station). In addition to this already built network, TSF - the Ferrovie dello Stato Telecommunications company - estimates to have 9 thousand kilometres of pipes, potentially able to host new optical fibre. This open the way to offer Telecom services to the general public, as the network capacity largely exceeds the needs of the 60 thousands FS telephone users. TSF also manages a transmission system of 5 radio networks consisting of 361 analogical lines and 77 digital lines. Finally, TSF owns also the 8 thousand terminals and the 65 satellite stations composing the information technology patrimony of Italian railways. Autostrade Telecomunicazioni network presently consists of about 66 thousands kilometres of fibre optic network; 145 isoradio repeaters and 130 sites for video traffic control. Moreover, it has the potentiality to grow much more thanks to pipes running parallel at the highways routes. The present network shows a capacity of 400 high speed channels, everyone able to transmit high definition moving images or, alternatively, a lot of contemporary telephone lines. The network is used to offer a number of services such as electronic transactions (Autostrade already uses its network for payments via credit card or company card) and interactive multimedia services. 3. Telecommunication joint ventures At the beginning of November 1997 Enel signed a joint venture with Deutsche Telekom and France Télécom called Wind who became the second global operator in Italy, after Telecom Italia, with a strong emphasis on the integration of fixed and mobile telephony. The joint venture planned investments for about 6 billion ECUs over the next ten years. Enel will keep the property of its telecommunication network (2.000 kilometres already in use), and the expansion of the network to 12.000 kilometre of fibre covering 113 town on the Italian territory will be financed by the joint venture. The network is being designed by Wind itself while Enel is in charge of the building of the infrastructure. At the end of 1998, 6 000 Km of fibre have been installed. The completion of the plan is scheduled mid 99. Wind will lease Enel’s network with a contact for 15 years, while the national body for electricity will give in outsourcing to Wind all its internal telecommunication activities. On February 1998, Wind was granted an individual license for the construction of fixed infrastructure and the provisioning of vocal fixed telephony. The beginning of the services is scheduled for March ’99 in six areas. At mid June 1998, the joint venture was assigned the third Italian mobile operator license (DCS 1800). The beginning of the services is scheduled for March ’99 in eight areas. Moreover, Enel has started trials will Nortel concerning data-transmission on electricity lines. Wind also announced its participation in the pay-Tv Tele+ The ENI telecommunication activities managed by Snam have been separated in a company called "Nuova Società di Telecomunicazioni" (NST). NST was acquired by Albacom and as a result Eni group obtained a 35% stake in Albacom enterprise. The other stockholders have the following shares: Mediaset 19.5%, Albacom Holding (50,5% BT and 49,5% Banca Nazionale del Lavoro ) 45%.. Another element of the joint venture agreement is a contract for Albacom to provide outsourced telecommunication services to the ENI group. Albacom public vocal telephony offer started in July 1998. The separated venture for telecommunication is called Telecomunicazioni Sistemi Ferroviari (TSF): Ferrovie dello Stato concluded an agreement with Infostrada (75% Olivetti, 25% Mannesmann) for the implementation of a fibre optic network for the provision of telecommunication services. Infostrada relies on the already existing network (about 1,800km of fibre optic cables and will enhance it by exploiting railways lines. 1,500 additional km by the end of 1998. The planned investment is about 1700 Billion Lira. The separated venture for Telecommunication is called Autostrade Telecom. The motorway company has leased its fibre optic network to Infostrada, with a commercial agreement. Autostrade participated to the tender for the third mobile license as a partner of the Telon joint venture. Telon shareholders are: Autostrade (27%), Bell Canada (27%), Distacom (22%), Cofiri (7.5%), Unicredito (7%) and other minor stakeholders. Autostrade holds now an individual license for the construction of fixed infrastructure and the provisioning of vocal fixed telephony. In sight of the fourth mobile operator licence, a possible agreement with the Picienne consortium (also previously competing for the third licence) is said to be on discussion. |
