Iliad tackles Italian mobile market with opening of 700 MHz

Iliad now has 9 million customers in Italy and certainly has cause for celebration, with the latest regulatory figures showing it continues to chip away at market share from competitors.

Meanwhile, Italian TV broadcasters released the 700 MHz spectrum band on schedule, meaning telecom operators are ready to start the next stage of 5G rollout.

Iliad disrupted the Italian mobile phone market when it launched as the country’s fourth mobile network operator in May 2018, offering low-cost plans and a period of intense price competition, still felt by consumers. long-established players. Just over four years later, it has 9 million customers. It’s a good start in a market of around 60 million people.

“At the heart of the operator’s continued growth trend is trust,” Iliad said, when announcing its new customer milestone. It’s customer confidence in Iliad’s transparency and commitment to keeping its tariff plans low, says the telecom operator.

We’ll gloss over Iliad’s recent row with the Italian regulator that landed it a fine for misleading customers with its 5G marketing…

You could say that low prices, rather than confidence, are at the heart of Iliad’s continued growth. But the telecom operator claims to have a customer satisfaction rate of over 97%, according to a recent Ipsos survey, putting it several percentage points ahead of TIM, Vodafone and WindTre. And moreover, its growing market share suggests that it is retaining customers while attracting them.

The latest figures from the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (Agcom) put Iliad’s share of the Italian mobile market at 10.9% at the end of 2021, an increase of 1.6 percentage points compared to the end of 2020. This is the market for human SIM cards, by the way, and does not include IoT and M2M. The other three network operators all reported slight declines in market share – declines ranging from 0.7 to 1.2 percentage points – and while they remain significantly larger than Iliad, the relative newcomer is shrinking their market.

Three of the four Italian MNOs, including Iliad, are about to enter a new phase of network development in Italy.

Articles in the local press over the past few days reminded us that July 1 marked the official date for handing over 700 MHz spectrum to the mobile industry, or rather the date by which Italian television broadcasters were to release the frequencies. According Mobile Web Worldamong other things, the airwaves have been released and are ready for use by mobile operators.

It’s been almost four years since TIM, Vodafone and Iliad together spent €2 billion on 700 MHz frequencies for 5G (time flies really fast when writing about telecoms.) All three have committed similar sums for paired 10 MHz licenses. Iliad acquired spectrum reserved for a new market entrant for €676.5 million, while TIM and Vodafone agreed to part ways for €680.2 million and €683.2 million respectively. euros, via auctions.

At the time, operators inside and outside Italy were complaining about the cost of 5G, including TIM, which was making noise about having to sell assets to afford the rollout. They have since launched 5G services and now have the option to expand their offerings by adding these 700 MHz frequencies.

But talk of reshaping the business hasn’t gone away for the incumbent. Quite the opposite, in fact. In the years since, TIM has merged its tower business with that of Vodafone Italia, sold shares and is working to divest much of the rest. Meanwhile, a well-documented business separation is on the cards, as the telco decided to split its networks and service units. The latest is that we’re probably looking at a roughly 50/50 split of employees and debt between the two operations, according to Reuters’ sources, that is.

Meanwhile, TIM also has a finger in the Italia 1 Giga project pie, having split the spoils of €3.4 billion in government funding for the fixed broadband rollout with its rival – and future new network partner. – Open Fiber. The project, which is part of the EU-backed Covid recovery programme, has since been completed, with TIM securing €65 million in funding for the last unallocated batch covering Trento and Bolzano, the Ministry of Innovation Technology and Digital Transition (MITD) by Vittorio Colao. revealed last week.

With a buyout offer or two on the table and the need to compete on all fronts, the incumbent is certainly busy. But he must also keep an eye on the likes of Iliad, whose continued healthy growth rate remains an issue for the big three MNOs. The Risky Witer