On average, every Italian has almost one and a half telephones. In our country the "mobile telephony penetration rate" is 139%: one of the highest percentages in the world. Only Russians (160%) and Swedes (142%) beat us. The data is contained in the latest Mediobanca R&S report on TLCs.
The analysis also shows that in September 65% of Italian mobile phones were equipped with a 4G connection. Not only that: Italy also stands out on the 5G front, among the pioneering countries in experimentation.
As for domestic connections, coverage in FTTH (Fiber-to-the-home) mode reached 21,7% of Italian homes.
ITALY LEGEND IN THE CONNECTION SPEED
On the other hand, Italy ranks only 27th in the world for download speed (17,23 Mbps), very far from the performance of the first nations (Luxembourg unreachable with its 375,78 Mbps) but also from those of many European countries (where Iceland's 90,36 Mbps stands out). We are (very) far away even from Spain and Portugal, respectively in ninth and fifteenth position.
THE RANKING OF THE OPERATORS
Mediobanca R&S also draws up a ranking of market shares: Telecom Italia is back as the first operator (31% at the end of September), ahead of Vodafone Italia (29,4%), Wind Tre (29,1%), PosteMobile (3,9% ) and Iliad (2,2%). In the landline sector (voice+data), Telecom Italia is still in first place, at 51,2%, followed by Vodafone Italia (13,6%), Wind Tre (13,2%), Fastweb (12,7%) , Linkem (2,8%) and Tiscali (2,2%). Telecom also holds the largest market share in broadband (44,5%). They are followed by Vodafone (15,4%), Fastweb (14,8%), Wind Tre (14,4%), Linkem (3,3%) and Tiscali (2,8%).
THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
As regards the economic data of the telecommunications sector, in 2017 it represented 1,9% of GDP in Italy, 2,5% of household spending and 5,2% of total investments. Revenues grew in both 2016 and 2017 (+0,9% on 2016), reaching 32,2 billion euros. Yet, despite the recovery, the telecommunications sector in Italy remains in sharp decline compared to 2013 (-5,1% for the fixed network and -9,2% for the mobile one).
