It is a new-look Telecom Italia Group that is appearing this year at SMAU 2000, the prestigious annual exhibition of Information and Communications Technology. The Group´s revamped image reflects its new organizational model which is built around its recently-established Business Units. Each Business Unit -- Wireline Services, Mobile Services, Internet, IT Services, Satellite Services -- will be displaying its latest products and technologies at the event.
The Telecom Italia stand extends over an area of 3,400 square meters, and is located at Pavilion 15/1 in the sector reserved for major telecommunication companies. The Telecom Italia Group has also organized a busy schedule of meetings and conferences on the theme of telecommunications, and many of the main speakers will be its own top managers.
Each Telecom Italia Business Unit will be displaying and demonstrating its latest technologies, services and products. We highlight some of the more important below.
TELECOM ITALIA WIRELINE SERVICES
- E-commerce is a new service which offers a broad range of online solutions, backed up by the Internet Data Center of Telecom Italia. The service will cater to top-level customers.
- Data WAN is a broad-ranging set of services based on the Private Virtual Network concept. The service is intended for businesses that need better and higher-speed network connections between their various offices and sites.
- Vocal Browsing is aimed at residential users and will be offered on a trial basis to the first 3,000 Club Comunico customers who ask for it. The service allows customers to use their home telephones to access and, using voice commands, acquire information from a number of special-interest sites: economics, sport, television programs and the cinema.
- NetEconomy ADSL brings permanent high-speed Internet connections to small and medium enterprises for a fixed fee.
TIM
- GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is a standard by which mobile phone signals are transmitted in bursts of data packets. GPRS, which makes possible direct access to the Internet from mobile phones, is an intermediate stage in the evolution from GSM to UMTS, the mobile telephony system of the future.
- WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) enables mobile phone users to connect to the Internet. Several WAP-enabled devices have been set up at the Telecom Italia stand for a public demonstration of the latest WAPTIM services.
- UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Standard) is the third-generation standard which makes possible multimedia services, high-speed Internet access and data transmission on mobile telephones.
SEAT PAGINE GIALLE
- Pagine Gialle, the Italian Yellow Pages, makes it easy for consumers, whether private or corporate, to find out where, how, from whom and at what conditions to get the product or service they are looking for. The next batch of Pagine Gialle directories, to be distributed this Fall, will offer an extra service called "Trovamarchi". This new service, created in response to the growing demand for trademark and labeled products, consists of a new search tool which makes it easy for the user to look up the marques and trade names contained in the directory. The directories themselves have been redesigned both inside and out to make them easier to read and consult.
- Pagine Gialle online (www.paginegialle.it) is the most dynamic, up-to-date and complete Internet consultation service where supply matches demand. Pagine Gialle online encompasses more than three million economic operators (all the firms and professionals in Italy), plus 100,000 sites with detailed information (ranging from company brochures and product showcases to maps and descriptions of business outlets across the country and e-commerce facilities). The sheer scale of these numbers is reflected in the level of use: each day, more than 200,000 searches are carried out and 600,000 pages visited.
- 89.24.24 Pronto Pagine Gialle is a telephone-based information service which can be reached from a fixed line or mobile telephone without the need to dial the local area code. The operators can give out information on commercial or industrial activities and services, or supply the name, telephone number and address of any economic operator anywhere in Italy. The service, active for seven months, has now received almost 2 million enquiries.
- www.cliccalavoro.it is the brainchild of Giallo Lavoro, a subsidiary of Seat Pagine Gialle and consists of a web site than brings job-seekers and employers into contact with one another.
- Viasat is the leading European supplier of information for those on the move. It is also the top provider of satellite security and protection systems, an area that it made its own by being the first to bring anti-theft satellite tracking facilities to the general consumer. More than 50,000 vehicles in Italy alone use Viasat satellite tracking. The company is now pushing at new frontiers by introducing an even more advanced range of services that will deliver a wealth of useful information to motorists by means of special terminals installed on board their vehicles.
IT TELECOM
FAST@TRADE is an e-trading facility that enables banking and brokerage customers to trade in financial instruments (shares, bonds, derivatives) by making a direct network connection to Italian and international stock markets.
W@P System lets users administer corporate infrastructures and manage customer services from their WAP-enabled mobile phones.
For a full and detailed overview of the technologies, services and products presented by the Telecom Italia Group, visit the exhibition stands of our companies where literature and materials are available to the press and public.
THE NEW ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE TELECOM ITALIA GROUP
- Wireline Services, which brings together the "Mercato Italia" (domestic market) and "Rete" (network) divisions, leads the way in the development of new applications for fixed-line telephony, voice traffic, data transmission and call centers. It aims its products and services at the full range of users, namely: residential customers, small and medium-sized businesses and large corporations.
- TIM is one of the top mobile telephony operators in the world, with 19.9 million customers in Italy and 15.8 million abroad (figures updated to 30 June 2000).
- Internet is the Business Unit to emerge from the integration of Tin.it and Seat Pagine Gialle, an operation that will create the leading Internet access and content provider in the country. The Internet Business Unit will bring together 3.6 million-plus Tin.it and 650,000 Seat Pagine Gialle subscribers.
- IT Telecom is the largest information communications technology group in the country. It encompasses 44 companies belonging to four larger industrial entities, namely: the Finsiel Group, Telesoft, Sodalia and the Information Technology division of Telecom Italia. IT Telecom, already market leader in its sector, was created with the purpose of strengthening an important section of the Italian IT industry which is closely integrated with the telecommunications industry. The Business unit exists to develop a portfolio of Web-based services based on competitive IT solutions.
- Satellite services: Telespazio is the largest private sector satellite operator in Europe, and the only company in the world capable of delivering satellite systems to telecommunication operators, business clients and consumers.
- International operations is a Business Unit that represents the Telecom Italia Group abroad. International operations form a strategically fundamental part of the Telecom Italia mission. The Business Unit is present mainly in Europe, Latin America and the Mediterranean Basin.
- Venture Capital is a business unit created with a view to capturing all the opportunities offered by new information technologies and Internet applications.