ITALY

• "Italy antiterror law stunts wi-fi, critics say," by Philip Willan, ComputerWorld, 19 January 2009: "Italy's antiterrorism law, renewed by government decree at the beginning of this year, is being accused of stifling the development of wifi technology in the country. The law, named after Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu, who introduced it in 2005 after the London bombings, obliges the operators of public wifi services and internet cafes to keep a record of the identities of all their clients and a log of their internet traffic for possible perusal by the police. Critics say the law, intended to help the police combat the use of the internet by terrorists and criminals, is hurting the development of wifi by making it difficult and costly for businesses to offer internet access to their clients. Those intending to do so have to register for a special licence with their local police headquarters..."
• "WI-MAX Libero!" by Andrea Rodriguez, April 2007: a petition addressed to Italy's communications minister and regulatory agency and to the European Parliament, in Italian. Opposes Italy's planned auction of WiMAX licenses in the 3.5 GHz band and demands that at least one-third of the [WiMAX?] spectrum should be available without any license requirement for spread-spectrum communication networks built by nonprofit associations and local authorities. When checked on 13 November 2007, this petition had already attracted over 121,000 signatures. See the WiMAX Libero website for more information.
• "Il Ministro delle Comunicazioni: Decreto Wi-Fi," 4 October 2005 (decree in Italian. This amends the decree from May 2003 to reduce geographic and operational restrictions, to expand WiFi regulations to encompass all of Italy, and to end the authorizations' experimental nature. The aim is to encourage ISPs to use Wifi as a last-mile solution in small towns.
• "Decreto Ministeriale di regolamentazione dei servizi Wi-fi ad uso pubblico" (Ministerial Decision on Rules concerning Wi-Fi for public use), Ministry of Communication, 8 May 2003, in Italian. Authorises public hotspots to be installed on an experimental basis in premises open to and frequented by the public - train stations, airports, parks, etc.
• "Accesso ad Internet Senza Fili in Regime di Autorizzazione Generale e Uso Pubblico" (Access to the Internet without wires in the Regime of General Authorization and Public Use), Ministry of Communication, 2003. See also "Nota Esplicativa sul Decreto del Wi-Fi" (explanatory note on the WiFi decree), in Italian, 2003.
• "Modifica del Piano Nazionale di Ripartizione delle Frequenze" - the Ministry of Communication modifies its 5 GHz band allocations for wireless LANs (February 2003).
• "Open Spectrum, il nuovo paradigma wireless" di Raffaella Scalisi (31 January 2003) e Cos'è l'Open Spectrum" di Guiseppe Caravita (5 December 2003) - both in the Network Games blog, in Italian.
• On 14 June 2003, Cristiano Siri extracted parts of the FCC's Spectrum Policy Task Force Report for his OninO blog: "Open Spectrum: A Path to Ubiquitous Connectivity." The excerpts (on license exempt spectrum and cognitive radio) are in English while his commentary is in Italian.
• On 24 June 2003, the newspaper La Stampa published "Open Spectrum: passa dal 'wi-fi' il nuovo etere" di Stefano Porro, which set the stage for an interview by Anna Masera with Italy's Minister of Telecommunications, Maurizio Gasparri ("Gasparri: c'è spazio per tutti Il ministro risponde alle critiche sul suo decreto"). The interview focuses on Open Spectrum and Wi-Fi as a "universal service." Porro comments on the interview in an editorial for Quintostato the following day: "Il wi-fi dimezzato."
• "Italy decrees data retention until 31 December 2007," EDRI-Gram - Number 3.16, 10 August 2005: "On 27 July 2005 the Italian government published a decree 'with urgent measures to fight international terrorism'... Article 7 decrees that all internetcafes and public telephone shops with at least 3 terminals must seek a license permit within 30 days from a 'questore', a local representative of the Ministry of Home Affairs. They have to store all traffic data of their customers as well. The length of this storage will be decided upon in a separate, yet to be issued, administrative decree. WIFI-points and locations that do not store traffic data will have to preventively demand ID from their users. This actually already is common practice in Italy; hotspots at several airports for example will only allow internet usage after the user has entered the serial number of his ID card or drivers license..."
• Associazione per la libertà nella communicazione elettronica interattiva (association for freedom in interactive electronic communication).
• "Tecnologie Digitali e Liberta" - a presentation by Juan Carlos de Martin at a conference on "Tecnologie digitali e diritto nell'era della Rete" (Cyberlaw Torino, 12-13 July 2004). About a third of the presentation is devoted to Open Spectrum policy issues, explained with simple metaphors. In Italian.
• WLAN items in the Tel&Co wireless blog (all in Italian).
• "Open Spectrum, wireless libero" di Raffaella Scalisi, in Nomad Village (2 February 2003).
• "Networking with UWB" - website maintained by the Ultra Wide Band Goup at the University of Rome "La Sapienza."
• "RFID: The Next Fashion from Italy?", RFID Journal, 19 February 2003: "Marco Astorri wants to make RFID fashionable. The executive VP of Lab ID, based in Bologna, Italy, has been working on a complete radio frequency identification system to be used to track garments and other items. Lab ID has spent 10 million Euros and 15 months developing tags, readers and antennas that operate at high frequency (13.56 MHz), as well as the software necessary to manage the readers. The company's system is based on ISO 15693, a standard for how vicinity cards communicate with readers..."
• "Italian RFID Lab Launches Warehouse Project," by Rhea Wessel, RFID Journal, 27 November 2006: "The RFID Lab at the University of Parma is developing a model of a full-scale warehouse to test radio frequency identification technology. The model includes receiving docks and storage racks. Based on input from 20 major Italian companies, the project will reproduce warehouse logistics processes typical to the food and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector... The RFID Lab, which opened its doors six months ago (see 'Italian RFID Lab to Open in May'), was the first lab in Italy to receive a temporary license to test RFID in the UHF band. Most European Union (EU) member-states use the 865 MHz to 868 MHz radio frequency band. In Italy, that is the domain of the military, though there are some indications the country may open the band for other uses in the near future."
• "Rfid: semiliberalizzazione per la frequenza Uhf" by Giancarlo Lanzetti, week.it, 12 April 2007 in Italian: "Da maggio anche in Italia sarà possibile implementare soluzioni Rfid nella frequenza Uhf con apparati oltre i 500 milliwatt, ma soltanto all'interno di edifici. Questa limitazione dovrebbe durare due anni..." (RFID: semi-liberalization of for the UHF frequency. From May it will also be possible to implement RFID solutions in the UHF frequency band in Italy with tags that exceed 500 milliwatts, but only inside buildings. This limitation will have to last two years...)

Europe - Regional Overview