By the end of last year, Italian telecommunications operator la Societa Italiana per l’esercizio delle telecomunicazioni pA, SIP, was expecting to have signed up approximately 850,000 portable phone subscribers, including users of the new Groupe Speciale Mobile service. A spokesman said no figures were available on the number of GSM users already signed up, but added their numbers were few, since the service was launched only on October 1. It’s only been a couple of months, GSM is only available in the carphone and in the heavier, battery-powered models, and you can’t yet call internationally on the service, so it’s not nearly as widely diffused as the existing network, he said. Despite increases in service cancellations, SIP expects to exceed 1m portable phone subscriptions in the first quarter of this year, thanks to the expansion of GSM use and promotional offers on the existing analogue network. The business of renting portable phones is just beginning to take off in Italy, according to Il Sole-24 Ore, which says that SIP itself is about to get into the business. SIP says it would like to, but that no details have yet been decided. If we do it, it will probably be with other appropriate partners, such as hotels or car rental agencies, the firm said.
