Michael Sedge

Italy’s third largest ISP, Flashnet, has announced that it has become part of German company Cybernet, one of the largest international Internet backbone providers in Europe. The acquisition, consisting of 100 percent of the Italian operation, puts the German-operated company second only to TIN, the ISP of Telecom Italia, and Italy Online, with regards to […]

E-commerce in Italy is growing at a rate of 300 percent annually, according to a study presented by the Bocconi University in Milan. In the last year, Internet sales in the Mediterranean peninsula reached 400,000 individual purchases, compared to 100,000 during the previous year. The study pointed out that even over the Net, Italians maintained […]

After months of merger discussions with German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, time ran out for Telecom Italia, allowing Olivetti Spa to move forward in their $65 billion hostile takeover of the former state monopoly. How the Olivetti takeover will effect Italy’s Internet service is yet to be seen. Already, however, the acquisition has created a […]

The Italian postal service, Poste Italiane Spa (PT), and Computer Associates entered into a joint venture this week for the development and implementation of an advanced system for network administration, database control, and software applications to run PT’s financial management. Upon signing the agreement, PT administrative director, Corrado Passera, said that Poste Italiane would maintain […]

After months of discussions and negotiations, the long awaited $81 billion merger between Telecom Italia and Deutsche Telekom seems to be far from finalized. While the German telecommunications giant quickly developed a plan to move forward in this joint venture, Italy is finding the transition from state-owned monopoly to privatization extremely painful. As one political […]

Following the success of free Internet service in England, where four of 10 users access the world wide web at the cost of a local telephone call, two Italian telecommunications companies, Tiscali and Infostrada, have launched similar services for Net patrons in this Mediterranean peninsula. In April, Tiscali introduced FreeNet, including an email box and […]

Repubblica.it, the online version of the daily, La Repubblica newspaper, is the preferred Internet reading of Italians (21.4%), according to a survey by Infocity. The recent announcement came as no surprise, considering that newsstand sales of the Rome-based newspaper reach 500,000 copies a day. What did come as a surprise, however, was the second place, […]

While the United States and some European nations are pushing for a “one student, one computer” ratio, Italys goal is simply get computers into all public schools by the end of 2000. In additionally, according to Minister of Public Instruction Luigi Berlinguer, for those institutes that have computers, a major effort is being made to […]

In an offer unprecedented in Europe, Olivetti Spa has been given a green light to moved towards a $58 billion hostile takeover of the former state monopoly, Telecom Italia, the world’s sixth-largest telecommunications company. Following the initial filing with Consob, the Italian stock market regulatory board, executives of Olivetti explained that Tecnost, the financial group […]

Imagine plugging your laptop or PC into an electrical socket and immediately being linked to the World Wide Web. No modems, telephone connections, per minute charges, or hotel phone bills. Sound impossible? Recent experiments by Citytel, a telecommunications group under the Italian energy company, AEM, illustrated the realistic potential for Internet accessibility through electricity networks, […]

Alarm over Internet security and espionage was launched early this month by Stefano Rodota, a government watchdog for the rights of privacy of Italian citizens and businesses. Of particularly concern, according to Rodota, is Echelon, an ultra-sophisticated, satellite spy network operated by the United States National Security Agency, which is able to intercept telephone, fax, […]

Seventeen-hundred families living in the city of Bologna will soon be provided free Internet service, as part of a unique test to introduce new public services into Italian homes, city officials announced recently. The test, through a collaboration of the City of Bologna and Telecom Italia, will begin in January and run for 18 months. […]