R&S presents its Focus on TLC

The data from the Italian TLC sector, a sector which in 2017 accounted for 1.9% of the country’s GDP, 2.5% of its household spending, and 5.2% of its total investments, in the past two years has been relatively encouraging: revenues were up in both 2016 and 2017, and now stand at €32.2bn. Revenues from the fixed line network were in rude health, up 3.8% (to €16.4bn in total), while the negative trend in the mobile network continued, with revenues falling by 1.9% (to €15.8bn in total). Despite the beginnings of a recovery in the past two years, compared to 2013 the TLC sector in Italy still reflects a strong downturn (fixed-line revenues down 5.1%, mobile revenues down 9.2%). These are some of the highlights to emerge from the 2019 edition of the survey of the TLC sector, at the Italian and European levels, carried out by the Mediobanca Research area.

This year too, the rankings for the leading players in Italy are dominated by Telecom Italia, with revenues of €19.5bn, followed by Vodafone Italia (€6.3bn) and Wind Tre (€6bn). The good performance in fixed-line telephony (revenues up 3.8%) confirmed Italy in fourth place among the main European telecoms markets, behind Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain.

In comparison with the big European players, Telecom Italia ranks seventh by revenues, but wins a place on the podium when measured by industrial profitability, per capita productivity, and investments as a percentage of revenues. In the first nine months of 2018, the trend in revenues in Italy has been uneven. The entry of Iliad to the market has begun to show its first results, causing its competitors to lose some €300m in revenues, and also in terms of average revenues per unit, encouraging new low-cost operators to enter the market as well.

The complete survey is available for download at www.mbres.it