Broadband penetration in Italy is falling behind other EU countries - report.

INTERNET BUSINESS NEWS-(C)1995-2006 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD 

Broadband penetration in Italy is falling behind other EU15 countries, and is now only better than Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Spain, according to the findings of new European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) European Broadband Scorecard.

According to the report, broadband penetration in Italy is only 12.7%, below the average of 14.1% across the 25 countries of the EU. ECTA believes that Italy is falling behind in broadband penetration because, due to inefficient regulation, the incumbent operator Telecom Italia holds 72% market share in Italy's broadband market, which is the largest of any one company within the EU15 countries. Competitive services have been introduced by altnets Tiscali, Fastweb and Wind, and have proved to be successful, indicating market demand, but further development of new services for users is slowed by the insufficient degree of competition.

According to ECTA, the best way to ensure competition is to create a regulatory environment that guarantees that altnets have the same access to the market as the incumbent. In addition, the regulation should ensure that infrastructure investment by the altnets is not discouraged in any way by anti-competitive behaviour on the part of the incumbent. AGCOM, the Italian telecoms regulator, should focus on making local loop unbundling and wholesale broadband access more effective, claimed the managing director of ECTA.

The full results of the ECTA European Broadband Scorecard are due to be available in September 2006.

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