1) Here in Italy a popular showman started to promote a WebTV box on TV on our major channels... I've seen it few times but it seems they have in mind a massive campaign. 2) Our biggest Telco has announced a raise in bills for urban calls. I'll give a picture of the situation... Telecom Italia (former SIP) was public and a state monopoly; now for european laws they have had to sell some of their stocks, and now here it's legal to have your own telco company... But cables in the cities are owned by Telecom Italia... and cabling a city is a long work... Now italian and European joint venture are offering lower rates on intercities calls, international calls and mobile... but of course they can't offer lower rates for intracities (urban) calls. You can understand what will be the impact on internet developement here... I can see a light at the end of the tunnel... In some cities (Milano, Bologna and others) some of the companies who used to distribute gas, water etc... have been privatized. They have the structure to use their tubes/cables to offer an alternative service for internet/telephony... ------------------------------------------- Ivan Sergio Borgonovo [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webmaster Gorilla Bookstore http://www.gorilla.it Tel. +39 2 3311105/34530455 Fax. +39 2 34531591 Via Mac Mahon 9, Milano, Italy ------------------------------------------- ____________________________________________________________________ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done directly from our website for all our lists. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
