Tim, Open Fiber, Eolo, Linkem and more. Who fears and who doesn’t fear Starlink on broadband in Italy
Starlink's broadband plans in Italy. And the positions of companies in the sector such as Open Fiber according to Sole 24 Ore, specialized newspapers and financial analysts
Business in sight for Musk's Starlink in Italy? Here are rumors and insights.
WHAT IL SOLE 24 ORE WROTE ABOUT STARLINK ABOUT MUSK IN ITALY
Elon Musk is knocking on the doors of the government and telecommunications operators to implement Starlink's activities in Italy. According to rumors from Il Sole 24 Ore , for some weeks the Italian representatives of the satellite business unit of SpaceX, the company of the entrepreneur who is also at the head of X and Tesla, have intensified contacts with the Presidency of the Council, the Department for digital transformation and the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy with the aim of verifying the possibility of participating with satellite internet connection services in large projects for the diffusion of ultra-broadband.
STARLINK'S SNIFFINGS IN ITALY WITH THE GOVERNMENT AND WITH THE TIM AND OPEN FIBER COMPANIES
According to the Confindustria newspaper, contacts are also underway with Open Fiber, the state concessionaire for ultrabroadband coverage of the white areas, i.e. those considered to be market failure, and winner together with Tim of the Pnrr tender "Italy at 1 Giga" to also cover the gray areas where there is more than one active operator.
STARLINK'S PLANS
Il Sole 24 Ore comments: “The attempt, although it appears very complicated considering the concession and award rules set by the government, is to propose to integrate the traditional coverage that Open Fiber and Tim must guarantee entirely with optical fiber or (in case of white areas) than with fixed wireless access”.
MUSK'S TALKS WITH URSO
At the end of November, Musk had a telephone conversation with the Minister of Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso. «We addressed – Urso then said in a post on X – a series of topics, starting from space and new frontier technologies».
Starlink's satellite internet offer, already present in Italy with differentiated options for homes, businesses and boats, hinges on the SpaceX satellite constellation, the largest in the world, which exploits low-altitude Earth orbit, has Il Sole 24 Ore added: “The activity was illustrated in the following days to Prime Minister Meloni's staff in a meeting at Palazzo Chigi and at the Department for Digital Transition which is coordinated by Angelo Borrelli and reports, as political delegation, to the Undersecretary of the presidency of the Council for Innovation Alessio Butti. Butti himself, speaking on 5 December at the EU Telecommunications Council, urged greater attention at European level to the topic of satellite technologies. Butti's idea is that, even from a prospective perspective, and not necessarily for short-term solutions, it is useful for the government to talk to the main players".
THE DOUBTS OF THE SOLE 24 ORE
The same economic-financial newspaper has doubts about the feasibility of Musk's group's projects in Italy: "The Starlink service, used during the conflict in Ukraine and recently offered by Musk to NGOs active in Gaza, has at least up to now performance limits which would not make it usable as part of the 1 Giga Italy project, which involves guarantees of coverage at least 1 gigabit per second".
SPACECONOMY COMMENTARY
The Spaceconomy360 newspaper has a different orientation : "The Starlink satellite connection service could integrate the projects for the diffusion of optical fiber and mixed Fwa (Fixed wireless access) technology in remote areas of the Peninsula".
THE OPINION OF ANALYSTS RELEASED BY SPACECONOMY
The economic-financial analysts have a different approach: “We do not see direct negative impacts for Tim, given that it is now selling its network infrastructure – explain the Intermonte analysts -. If anything, the focus is on the potential future role of Starlink in the Italian telecommunications sector: whether it will operate as a new operator as is currently happening in many countries, or rather only as a technological partner capable of offering new technology to Open Fiber/NetCo for coverage of the white and gray areas, to the benefit of all Italian resellers (including the future Tim)”.
“We do not exclude – the analysts continue – possible impacts for FWA operators such as Eolo and Linkem, considering both the potential threat from a new disruptive technology and the significant geographical overlap and for the tower operators (Inwit, Cellnex and Rai Way) which currently host the Fwa apparatus. At the same time we point out how Fwa technology is now able to guarantee a good level of network capacity and low latency, with adequate returns on capital invested in rural areas and/or market failure areas; furthermore, in the USA, despite the strong competition from Starlink on satellite, the main operators (Verizon and AT&T) are intensifying investments and FWA coverage in less populous states".
The investment bank experts conclude: “We do not see implications for small telecommunications operators such as Unidata (focus on the metropolitan area of Rome, perhaps some marginal impact for the Unifiber JV in the gray areas of Lazio) and Intred (present in large provinces and moderately populous areas of Lombardy). Finally, let us remember that in Europe, in addition to Starlink, OneWeb is also establishing itself, a new satellite player with the most advanced constellation of latest generation Low Earth Orbit (Leo) satellites and also the largest ever designed in history and so far this has not had disruptive impacts on the market of traditional telecommunications operators".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/tim-open-fiber-eolo-linkem-e-non-solo-chi-teme-e-chi-non-teme-starlink-sulla-banda-larga-in-italia/ on Wed, 27 Dec 2023 15:04:53 +0000.