Michael Sedge

While several telecommunications companies are marketing so-called “free” Internet services in Italy, Tiscali is the only operation that is getting close to making this a reality by maneuvering around the Telecom Italia’s domestic monopoly. Tiscali already enjoys over 710,000 Internet customers, CEO Renato Soru told reporters. With this new maneuver, it anticipates a growth rate […]

Following protests from Infostrada,, the Italian government has stopped Telecom Italia‘s move towards high-speed Internet service, saying that the initiative violates state antitrust laws. In recent months, Telecom Italia had begun experimental marketing of FastInternet service in Rome, Milan, Turin, and Bologna, utilizing wide and ADSL technology. The service carried a 400,000 lira (US$216) activation […]

In an unprecedented move, Italy’s political leader, Massino D’Alema, announced that the government has prepared a proposal to offer financial incentives to small and large businesses that invest in the Internet. The proposed package, which will be discussed in Congress next week, would provide roughly US$550 million in incentives over a three year ($110 million […]

Unlike broadcast television and radio, the Internet in Europe is not a consumer media, according to research presented recently by Jupiter Communications Europe. The data indicates, in fact, that local telecoms are currently holding back Internet development and growth of e-commerce. “Unlike television, the Internet in Europe is not ‘free-to-air’,” said Phil Dwyer, managing director […]

Romano Prodi, newly-installed President of the European Commission, was expected to receive Microsoft chairman Bill Gates for a private audience in Brussels. The meeting, scheduled for yesterday, was disclosed by Save the Web, a European Internet user movement. Save the Web points out that Microsoft has never been in the vanguard of open standards, and […]

An agreement reached between the Italian Association of Internet Providers (AIIP) and Telecom Italia will give ISPs a percentage of the online costs currently being charged to Internet users, according to reports by AIIP executives. “The pact could increase the revenue of ISPs by 40-50 percent,” said a representative of AIIP at the E-Commerce Summit, […]

While sophisticated software and Internet know-how provide a basic infrastructure and successful e-commerce, according to several European experts, is basically a marketing game — specifically, target marketing. Speaking at the opening session of the E-Commerce Summit, at the Sheraton Conference Center in Rome, Tom Schulte, director of business development for Software AG, said that electronic […]

When Pope John Paul II proclaimed 2000 a holy year, no one would have guessed that observance of the Year of the Jubilee would propogate so quickly online. More than 100 individual Web sites are now dedicated to the Year of the Jubilee, and, as the new millenium draws near, the number of Holy Year […]

The Italian state television and radio network, RAI, and Nettuno, a consortium of universities throughout the Mediterranean peninsula, have joined forces to offer one of most comprehensive multimedia study programs in Europe. “There is no longer a problem with space or time,” explained a representative of Nettuno. “Students can now ‘attend’ the Italian university of […]

The Italian capital has been selected to host the 1999 E-Commerce Summit, one of the largest and most comprehensive Internet conferences in Europe. Over 40 international speakers will be featured at this year’s Summit, including Robert Flemin, Oracle’s director for business development and marketing; Phil Dwyer, managing director of Jupiter Communications, Europe; and Bror Salmelin, […]

Italian publishing enterprise Gruppo Espresso has entered into a strategic agreement with RealNetworks, a leader in Internet audio and video services, to distribute information and entertainment via multimedia protocol. The deal includes the incorporation of Espressos print media and radio network operations – Radio DeeJay, Radio Capital and Italia Radio. The new venture, coordinated between […]

The growing cellular phone market is the target of the new Internet service introduced by Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM), the nation’s leading cellular telephone service. Utilizing Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), cellular phones contracted through TIM and predisposed for Internet service will automatically be connected to the company’s server, allowing visual display on the telephone screen. […]