Electricity and Fiber: A Match Made in Heaven?

The recent announcement by national electrical company ENEL that it intends to deploy Fiber to the Home to most Italian homes has created a lot of noise and tension in the Italian market, and deservedly so. It is a very

Telecom Italia one step closer from separation

As most of you will probably know already, Telecom Italia announced last week that the board had approved a plan to separate the access network from the service business. Here is the press release.

This has been in the

Telecom Italia goes full-blown FTTC

A few years ago, it looked like Italy might be a place where interesting broadband deployment models might emerge. In particular, a consortium of alternative operators all working together pushed a radical proposal to pool resources for the deployment of

Fastweb was a precursor in IPTV. Will they be a precursor in abandoning it?

Last week a Milanese newspaper announced that Fastweb was abandoning its IPTV offer (in favor of distributing Sky's satellite Pay-TV solution). Fastweb blames the abandon on dwindling subscriptions and a tough economic climate. As Teresa Mastrangelo highlights in an excellent

Quintarelli at AGCOM ?

Yesterday I was chatting online with one of my Italian friends and he told me that Stefano Quintarelli was one of the candidates for the seat of president of AGCOM). AGCOM, as you may know, is the Italian regulatory authority,

Milan, the FTTH Capital of Europe

From a technical standpoint, with the possible exception of Stockholm, Milan probably is the FTTH capital of Europe. It certainly will be on Feb. 8-10th since on these days the FTTH Council Europe Annual Conference will be held. This conference

Structural Separation and National Security

Last week I had a fascinating (though short) discussion with one of my tech friends in Sweden. The discussion moved on to structural separation. He said to me that back in the days when France Telecom was looking to buy

Wind and Fastweb sign unbundling and FTTH network sharing deal

The topic of network sharing or collaborative deployment amongst competitors is a major buzz in the FTTH field these days. The EU in particular seems to think it has found the silver bullet to solve the investment vs. competition conundrum.