“In a world in which the protagonists are more and more content providers, the emergence of a new way of using the media and television services is opening up new business opportunities in related sectors, such as infrastructure. And ‘this one of the reasons of the consolidation taking place in the field of transmission towers for mobile telecommunications, as is happening in Europe and Italy “.
To give Corcom a reading of what is happening in the field of towers for mobile, including past auctions, current and future, is Carlo Cambini , Professor of Industrial Economics at the engineering management department of the Polytechnic turin.
Cambini, what are the reasons for the consolidation?
I think they are the “classical” of these situations, and are mainly related to investment sharing. The technological update of networks to 4G and in view of the 5G require huge investments in order to have adequate coverage traders will incur significant costs, and in this case it will get most coverage with the least possible outlay. Leveraging the same transmission infrastructure is covered, with the same investment, more territory than you cover yourself. It ‘a dynamic comparable to that which occurs in fixed telecommunications with the partnership agreements between different operators for fiber optic coverage of some portions of territory. Add to this the fact that most of the operators are engaged both in the fixed and in the mobile, and thus have a double exposure in the investment, the reasons for what is happening are even clearer.
Consolidation also means rationalization of infrastructure?
Of course, with the transition to new technologies will also eliminate all the duplication of infrastructure that are now present in many areas of the country. Rather than create “double towers” for the same type of coverage, many operators find it more convenient to rationalize.
What will the conveniences for the new owners of the “sale” towers by mobile operators?
In this mechanism you have created new areas of business, as in the case of the antennas managers, who become managers of physical infrastructure through which tomorrow we will be able to offer so many different services: it is a kind of business “in the margins”. Today we think of the mobile phone still in the traditional way, but is expected to become increasingly a big “bearer” of content on the move, such as videos and television services. It becomes a physical infrastructure that has as its task to manage the frequencies both for mobile and for television. Undoubtedly it is a novelty for Italy, but around Europe it is not. In England there are operators, such as Arcadia, who run television antennas and multiplexes are buying mobile phone masts, and the same is doing the Spanish Abertis.
Do you see a possible synergy between the towers and the broadcasting for mobile telecoms?
We’re not talking about TV-telephony integration, but an integration technology. The same infrastructure that now broadcasts of “n” frequencies, used for example for television, could see them tomorrow entrusted to the mobile phone, at which point the operator would already available networks and could start immediately provide its service. The question is to have towers that tomorrow may ensure the provision of various services, more or less integrated with one another, and also optimize the use of frequencies.
But what seems now a major driver for the development of ultra-broadband, regardless of the technology with which you use the service, are certainly content. The content provider has the most important position on the market: the infrastructure is almost a commodity. In the end what I think is more important is being content providers: to succeed there is need infrastructure, and here comes the new opportunities.
And ‘feasible or desirable to the birth of a national standard for mobile telecommunications?
I would not want to talk about national champions, if it would create the largest operator that manages all signals, for mobile or multiplex, take over the issue of market dominance, with the need to intervene with ex ante regulation for access to towers . Do not forget that if you end mobile connections or mutiplexing will bring hundreds of megabits connection, will in future also provide internet services in competition with the fiber infrastructure, albeit at a different level of quality.
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