Work, healthcare, school, major works but also telecommunications. The money from the Recovery Fund will also be very useful for the telecommunications sector, expected from a particularly crucial 2021, with the need for large investments especially for 5G and optical fiber matches. However, this is according to what emerged from the Report on the telecommunications chain presented in Rome by Asstel ma developed by the Digital Innovation Observatories of the Milan Polytechnic, will take place in an environment where revenues are declining. According to the report, in fact, the turnover of the entire market in Italy stopped in 2019 at 26,8 billion, down by 1 billion compared to the previous year and marking the lowest value in the last 10 years.
The reason? A hypercompetitive environment in which, against increases of the order of 50% per year in mobile data traffic volumes and 25% in fixed data traffic, it resulted in the continuous reduction of prices and consequently of revenues, which from 2009 to 2019 decreased by 20% for the players in the sector. On the other hand, investments in networks have grown uninterruptedly since 2013: in 2019 fixed investments of 7,6 billion (over 300 million in charges for frequencies) reached the record incidence of 25% on the total turnover of the sector, driven above all by expansion of 4G and the start of 5G. How to get out of the impasse? “Public-private collaboration is necessary”, commented the president of Asstel Pietro Guindani.
The central theme is that of investment sustainability: total Ebitda of 11 billion is the lowest since 2007. The difference between Ebitda and capex for investments was 9 billion thirteen years ago, but today it is only 3,1 billion. The trade unions themselves are alarmed and they too are asking the government to use European funds: “These months have made it clear that connection is now a real right of citizenship. A right that needs investment to be enforceable by everyone, technological and infrastructural and an extraordinary training effort that brings the skills of human capital to European levels”, said for example Fabrizio Solari, General Secretary of Slc Cgil.
"The construction of infrastructures - Asstel explained - is a pre-requisite for the country's digital transformation, which must be accompanied by the development of "intelligent" digital services and by financial support to demand to stimulate their adoption and bridge the gap to Europe. For example, Italian citizens who use services of eGovernment they are only 32%, less than half of the European average of 67%, while companies that analyze Big Data are only 7%, compared to the European average of 12%. Our goal is undoubtedly to continue investing in the development of digital education and culture,” said Guindani.
