Market grew 2.1% in 2006

The Italian telecoms market grew 2.1% in 2006, according to a study by local ICT industry body Assinform. The market was worth EUR44.04 billion in total, including sales of devices, terminals and fixed and mobile networks. Italy’s mobile sector grew 4.5% to a value of EUR23.56 billion, while fixed line revenues were down 0.4% to EUR20.40 billion. The annual growth was less than the 3% posted in 2005 and Assinform predicts another drop to around 1% in 2007. There were more than 80 million cellular subscribers, 8.2 million ADSL connections and 324,000 fibre lines in Italy at the end of 2006.