Data Traffic, a threat to Italian network: Agcom

ROME: The growing use of smartphones that have sent data traffic surging risks triggering a collapse in Italy's mobile telecoms network and demands urgent intervention, the head of the country's industry regulator said on Tuesday.

Cellphone-loving Italy ranks the second biggest in Europe for usage of mobile broadband and telecom operators are focusing on the segment as one of the key drivers of growth in the coming years.

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"But if we don't intervene rapidly, with the current rate of usage of smartphones our mobile network risks collapse," Corrado Calabro, the head of the Agcom regulator, told parliament while presenting the agency's annual report.

However, the CEO of Telecom Italia, the country's largest telecoms operator, dismissed the warning.

"There is no such risk in Italy," Franco Bernabe told reporters. "We, like other operators, are making big investments in laying fibre for radio base stations. The fibre we are setting up in the mobile telephone infrastructure is the answer to these concerns, and so there's no risk of collapse."

Smartphone and 3G cards and sticks that allow people on unrestricted usage contracts to get online from virtually anywhere are posing a problem for mobile operators globally as they fuel a boom in mobile data traffic.

Operators have to invest heavily in their networks to prevent congestion and outages but stiff competition makes it difficult to raise prices.