TMCnet News
Telecom Italia quietly launches UMA service(Total Telecom Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Still reeling from the fallout from its decision to split its fixed and mobile operations, Telecom Italia has launched its long-anticipated UMA-based fixed-mobile convergence service Unica with little fanfare and indeed no formal announcement whatsoever. The service until now referred to as Unico, the name given to the required mobile handset simply appeared on the telco's Web site at the beginning of last week without all the whistles and bells the market had been expecting. "We have started the service," a spokesperson for Telecom Italia told Total Telecom on Tuesday. It appears Unica has been subjected to stringent regulatory scrutiny, which culminated in the launch of a severely restricted offer. The regulator "prevented us from starting a natural service", the spokesperson explained. Telecom Italia has instead been forced to launch an "experimental service" for a six-month period and is permitted to sign up just 30,000 customers. There is currently no information on what will occur in six months' time. The Italian incumbent had aimed to launch Unica in July, but the service was frozen by regulatory body AGCOM, which ruled it anticompetitive, since Telecom Italia had not made provision for a wholesale equivalent. This hurdle has since been overcome. Unica is available to customers taking a Telecom Italia fixed-line service, TIM consumer mobile tariffs and DSL/VoIP product Alice Voce. Unica carries a monthly subscription of 15 and customers will also be required to buy the Unico Pack for 369, comprising the Samsung SGH-P200 "Unico" dual-mode GSM/WiFi handset and an Alice ADSL2+ WiFi modem. The service enables users to make free calls from the home via the fixed phone or the Samsung-manufactured Unico mobile handset, using voice over WiFi, and GSM calls away from home. Up to five mobile numbers can be assigned to the same contract. It remains to be seen what the future holds for Unica, against a backdrop of regulatory intervention and a strategic overhaul and change of personnel at Telecom Italia. The plan to split the fixed and mobile operations back into two separate units has also prompted industry watchers to question what impact this will have on the incumbent's FMC strategy. "The convergence is still going ahead," the spokesperson insisted. U.K. incumbent BT and TeliaSonera Denmark have already launched UMA-based FMC services with BT Fusion and Home Free respectively. Copyright 2006 Terrapinn Ltd |