Italy: a telecom profile
November 2000

In 1999, revenues generated by the Italian telecommunications service market, including CATV and Internet access revenues, amounted to US$26.1 billion, i.e. 3.3% of the total World communications market. In Western Europe, Italy is the fourth largest market after Germany, the UK and France, accounting for 13.6% of this regional market. Over the period 1994-1999, the Italian market expanded at a growth rate of about 10%, one of the fastest in Western Europe, together with the UK and Spain: their compounded average annual growth rate (CAAGR) significantly exceeded the average of the Western European zone, with rates over 6% p.a. The Italian market expansion resulted mainly from the drive in mobile telephony, which grew at nearly 40% a year on average over the period, accounting for over US$9 billion in 1999. The acceleration recorded by the service telecom markets over 1994-1999 is due to slow down after 1999, with a CAAGR of 8% over 1999-2004, like in Western Europe as a whole, and less than, for instance, in France (+8.1%) and Germany (+9%). According to this trend, the weight of the Italian market relative to the whole Western European total will remain at the same 13.6% level. More...

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