Italy to give out WiMAX licenses by June next year

Italy would be joining the growing list of country by offering licenses for WiMAX-capable frequencies by June 2007.

This announcement by the Italian Communications Ministry has been welcomed by Tiscali and Fastweb. This auction is also likely to attract another telecom company in the region Telecom Italia.

The Italian government is expecting to make between 100 million and 200 million Euros from this sale. Mario Mariano, who heads Tiscali’s operations, spoke on this development: “Tiscali has successfully tested WiMAX technology and sees with favor the opening up of frequencies.”

Broadband service provider Fastweb added: “It fits very well with our existing fixed-line broadband technology.”

The Italian Communications Ministry added that they are going to reallocate the frequencies from military to commercial use. They would be selling out 3.4-3.6Ghz spectrum for wimax usage.