Raffaele Giarda, lawyer at the Baker & McKenzie office in Rome, notes that even if the Italian Parliament fails to implement telecommunications legislation this month, operators can start up their service once an EU directive’s deadline for implementation has passed, and the judicial authorities are obliged to respect EU law. Since virtually every Community directive deadline, except that for voice telephony deregulation, has gone unimplemented in Italy, operators are theoretically authorized for whatever services are deregulated on the European level – as long as they are eady to risk the wrath of bureaucrats. Ms Giarda also reported an EU official said the definition of universal service is to be revised at the end of 1999, which could have an impact on the cost of universal service compliance for operators.
