As anticipated in our article of August 1, yesterday the Italian Council of Ministers passed a Regulation on the full liberalisation of the telecommunications sector.

The Regulation aims at implementing those directives which were not yet implemented, including the Cable TV, Mobile Communications, Full Competition and Open Network Telephony.

At the same time, the new Regulation provides also the guidelines to adopt the "1998 package", which includes provisions regarding interconnection, universal service, licensing and data protection.

The Regulation, passed a few days after the enactment of the Law creating the Communication Authority in Italy, finally fills the existing gap between Italy and the other Members States of the European Union in the implementation process.

Finally, the licence to a third mobile communications service provider should be granted shortly, thus opening to competition the duopoly of TIM and Omnitel in the mobile telephony.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.