MOBILE TELEPHONY

The alarm of President Agcom. Now plans to auction 300 MHz for broadband. Bernabe (Telecom) says "no risk in Italy", while Bertoluzzo (Vodafone) is a real danger of Alessandro Longo

ROME - The mobile broadband network, made ​​of sticks and smartphones to surf the Internet, "in danger of collapse" because in Italy the resources of the operators are too few compared to many terminals are used. The alarm is not new but now, for the first time to run it is Corrado Calabro, president of Agcom (Authority for Communications). He did it this morning, in no uncertain terms, during the Annual report to Parliament. It is a direct request to the government to act quickly to release new spectrum resources (ie frequencies) for mobile broadband.

Mobile Broadband saturated. With a network in these conditions, in fact, the speed of mobile internet will sink for all users. Already, the real speed of mobile internet are very far from the advertised by the operators (who promise "to" 7, 14 or 28 megabits per second). The recent tests reveal facts and SOS Rates Between that, precisely because of the looming saturation, actual speeds are 1-2 megabits per second. The surfers were on the move 10 million at the end of 2009 and the summer will be 12 million in Italy, according to the Milan Polytechnic. Growth not only due to the boom of mobile phones and keys made for surfing, but also the arrival terminal innovations such as the Apple iPad, which also use mobile broadband (over Wi-Fi).

In recent months, many had been to warn congested network: among others, lecturers and leading experts like Antonio Sassano (La Sapienza) and Maurizio Decina (Politecnico di Milano). Only recently, however, institutions have begun to understand that the problem was long overdue. Calabro said that the Authority "is pursuing a policy aimed at the liberation of radio frequency in a short time: count - he said - to make available, prior to 2015, about 300 MHz to be auctioned for broadband." Refers to information compiled only with the new national plan of frequencies . Where for the first time it is said that some frequencies freed by the transition to digital should be allocated to mobile broadband. Some, in the short term: those that broadcasters can not use. By 2015 it is also necessary - asks AGCOM - that an auction of the Government shall make available other, as is also required by the European Commission.

Until yesterday, the government has turned a deaf ear on this issue and decided to assign all the frequencies released only to TV broadcasters. The wind is changing, however: the Deputy Minister for Economic Development has announced that Paul Roman will propose a law to remove frequencies to broadcasters who can not use. However, the rules already impose on broadcasters to use the frequencies assigned to them (on pain of loss of usufruct). According to a recent survey by the Ministry, are used only 54 percent of frequencies allocated to the national broadcasters and 71 percent of the national ones. United States and Germany have already made a bid for broadband access to the frequencies released by digital terrestrial. In many European countries also have been made or announced auctions to allocate the 2.6 GHz frequencies, which also would give a little 'of oxygen to the network. On this point, the Italian government still has not moved, however.

The next-generation broadband access. Calabro also gives a thrust to the fixed operators, which have not yet agreed on a common project of NGN (next generation network with Fibre to the Home), which also includes Telecom Italy . To date the project remain separate Telecom Italy, on the one hand, and that Fastweb Tiscali-Vodafone-Wind-other. "Every entrepreneur-said has the right to make its business plans and the Authority asseconderà every initiative, within the rules, especially those on access." However the impression "is that while noticeable design ideas proposed offer a vision of what can be done, but not yet concretely what we committed to do. There is also overlap of the geographical areas of intervention, without coordination of the installation works. " In short, the Calabro for NGN will be feasible, fully and on a large part of the Italians (at least 50 percent of the population) only if there is "overall initiative, a project for a fiber Italy Nation, which avoids costly duplication of civilian infrastructure and to make the leap to the country they need. " There are also separate the rest of NGN projects in the work of public administrations, such as the one approved in June by the Lombardy Region.

The fixed-mobile calls. In general, "in telephony liberalization has worked," is the budget of AGCOM. "In the mobile sector we have one of the most competitive markets in the world. From 2002 to the end of March 2010, more than 24 million consumers switched operator. As a result of our tough action now can switch carriers in three days by transferring the remaining balance. In fact, between October 2008 and October 2009 in Italy were taken just under 4 million numbers. Only Spain has exceeded 4.2 million with ". "This does not mean, of course, that the costs of mobile termination should be revised. The people - he added - should not pay a higher cost than efficient, even if this surplus is then returned to you in part by discounts and promotional packages. " The cost of termination affect especially prices for calls from fixed lines to mobile phones, still too expensive.

"The falling prices of fixed-mobile calls for the user does not fully reflect the fall in wholesale," said Calabro fact. "If the market does not work intervene. It is relentless - he continued - the introduction of innovations (from IP television to 3G, from mobile broadband to smartphones intelligent), which are causing a real transformation of society. "

The response of Bernabe. "In Italy there is no risk," says the CEO of Telecom Italy responding to the alarm of Calabria. "We and other operators are making large investments in fiber optic connection of the radio stations to increase power and capacity of the network."

Vodafone: Investing against collapse. The president of TLC for "observation is true," says the CEO of Vodafone Italy, Paul Bertoluzzo. "Traffic - explains - is growing, and each operator has to invest and find the commercial and technical solutions because consumers have the service for which they paid." In this regard Bertoluzzo said that Vodafone is investing in fiber and that the operator has activated a series of tools to control and limit the amount of bandwidth in case of excessive use, so to ensure a proper quality to all customers.