The Italian mobile summer

From "La Repubblica", 26, May, 2004. pag 31

...for 3 hours yesterday the videocall service offered by "3" operator in Italy had a crush..

But this fact does not remove the fascination for the new "supermobile" that is many things in one:
-it's a pc, when able to surf the web
-it's a tv: it can show Rai programs (on TIM), a clip from the "festivalbar"(on Vodafone), a spicy fragment of the Italian Big Brother (on "3").
-a videophonecall (on "3")
-a digital camera

And the Tv connection to mobile services is going forward.
Tim invests on Rai programs compressed for the mobiles, and also programs from "La 7" (a tv chunnel of telecom property).
TIM was very close to reach a tv-mobile monopole taking also Mediaset and the co-ownership Sky tv. But TIM stopped before catching the attention of political, legal and trust laws.
In June, Telecom wants to launch the videocall service for fixed telephony, allowing it to work in combination with the mobile videocall (3, and eventually Vodafone and Tim too). *let's just say that the success of a videocall is not so sure. see here for more about this doubts

Locks: now a 3 sim card doesn't work only on 3 mobile phones. A lock system that takes the customer's fidelity on a single operator.

Airbag: new mobiles have also the gps service integrated in the device (already used in cars to find a stolen car). The english "3" company is ready to launch an application that will automatically call the 911 in case of the airbag blows up (it means hard car crash), giving the right and specific locations to people rushing to save you (Read Your own car could one day send an SMS to save your life).

some datas:
fix phone subscribers in Italy: 21,7 mln
55,4 mln : active mobile lines in 2004
3,5 mln gprs users.