Italy’s Communications Ministry released the final results of the country’s WiMAX wireless broadband transmission system auction this morning. Italy is one of the last European countries to introduce WiMAX, but unlike France and Germany, Italy has generated large revenues from the auction, with total bids reaching more than EUR 136 million (USD204.5million), compared with the initial offer of EUR49.7 million when the tender process started on 13 February.
The main winner was Italy’s incumbent telecom operator Telecom Italia, which took three of the 35 licences on offer in the main regions in central and southern Italy and Sardinia. Surprisingly, Mediaset, Wind and Fastweb had previously withdrawn from the auction. Other licence winners include Milan’s E-via concentrated mainly in the centre-north, and AriAdsl backed by Israeli businessman David Gilo, which took licences in each of the regions the ministry subdivided the county into.