Journalist: We
welcome Vito Gamberale, CEO of F2i –
Fondi Italiani per le infrastrutture – and former CEO of SIP, which then became
TIM, between 1991 and 1998, the boom years for mobile telephone systems in
Italy.
Vito Gamberale: Good
evening.
Journalist: The
first mobile telephones were introduced in Italy in those years; the GSM
technology was launched in 1992, if I am not wrong. What memories do you have
of those challenges, of that phase, of those battles?
Vito Gamberale: The GSM
started in 1995; we launched the TACS in Italy in 1991. That was an earlier
technology, allowing telephone calls only within the Country, while the GSM
allows roaming, namely the possibility to make telephone calls to other
Countries as well.
A
sort of hagiography, an epic symbology that always tends to personalise merits,
was created around the development of mobile telephone systems in Italy. But I
believe we should be stressing the merits of an industrial group, STES and SIP,
currently Telecom Italia. I am speaking about the merits of a team of people
led by Ernesto Pascale, a knowledgeable person who drove the development of
telecommunications in this Country and who was later rewarded by being thrown
out of STET, since this Country, let me say it, rewards its own heroes by
punishing them.
In
that period I was lucky to take on the responsibility for developing mobile
telephone systems and believing that we would could truly do something great
for the company and more broadly for the Country.
Journalist: You were
some kind of pioneer in this.
Vito Gamberale: We were
lucky to find a “killer move”, namely an action, an initiative that allowed us
to considerably and unimaginably boost mobile telephone systems: prepaid
cards. We were the first to introduce
prepaid cards in Italy and in Europe, since it is always good to give back to
Caesar what is Caesar’s. Of all the things engineering taught me, I
particularly remember a professor saying to us that an engineer must be able to
copy, and therefore he taught us to identify the most advanced thresholds
available to be able to use these to create something new.
Journalist: And who
did you copy?
Vito Gamberale: Strange
though it may sound, we copied an idea from Colombia. Colombia had ghettoised
the use of mobile telephone systems to alleged fraudsters, who were given
prepaid cards; similarly, in Italy prepaid cards spread for public telephone
systems. Therefore, prepaid cards were a symbol of ghettoisation in Colombia;
instead we re-elaborated them to create a mass symbol. We copied something that
was being used in a very limited way, in a very particular Country, to develop
a mass product.
Journalist: In
short, Italy became one of the first Countries in terms of the penetration of
mobile telephone systems.
Vito Gamberale:
According to me, the years of the decades ending with 3 were really lucky as
regards mobile telephone systems. In 1973 the first mobile telephones were
developed; in 1983 the first mobile telephones were sold; in 1993 mobile
telephone systems had over 1 million users, which seemed an incredible figure.
Nowadays, there are over 90 million devices per 61 million inhabitants and we
have a penetration factor of 151%; this means that each inhabitant has and/or
uses one and a half devices. The level of penetration in Europe is 130%:
therefore, Italy is still one of the leading Countries in terms of the use of
mobile telephone systems, along with Finland and Portugal.
Journalist: A
question from a listener.
Listener: I have recently switched
from a prepaid card to a contract; could you explain to me what the government
grant tax is, which is still paid today?
Vito Gamberale: This tax
was introduced in 1993 to tax luxury goods; mobile phones were considered
luxury goods and at that time there were only contracts. In a way, prepaid
cards were a mean of bypassing this tax. Unfortunately, taxes remain in Italy
even though products become mass products; needless to say that petrol still
has excise taxes for the Belice earthquake. Arguably, this is one of those
improper taxes that should be revoked, since it is like imposing taxes on the
use of bicycles, a commonly used product.
Journalist: You are
no longer involved in the telecommunication business, but you certainly must
still keep an eye on evolutions; what are, in your opinion, the future
challenges and goals that we can expect in this field?
Vito Gamberale: It is
clear that mobile telephones currently allow us to have Internet without a
computer. As Martin Cooper himself still says, mobiles are seen as devices for
making telephone calls, but they will be increasingly perceived as devices
providing data, information and services, which is something happening right
now.
Journalist:
Therefore, devices for making electronic payments, that allow us to trade
electronically?
Vito Gamberale: Yes, they
can clearly also be used for electronic payments. There is an increasing trend
towards the dematerialisation of money; consequently, mobile telephones are
going to replace credit cards, prepaid cards and bank cards. I think mobile
telephones will also allow personal identification. Martin Cooper had a dream
of assigning infants a telephone number and I believe mobile telephones are
going to do something similar; they will identify persons as a whole and will
probably even limit fraud involving identity theft.
Journalist: How many
mobiles do you have in this moment?
Vito Gamberale: I have
two. I am in the third quartile, the one immediately above the average level.
Journalist: Could
you share some of your memories of those challenges, those years, or a success
you particularly remember?
Vito Gamberale: I do
have a particular memory, which is when we awarded the first millionth user of
mobile telephone systems. We tried to choose a person that represented a
professional category that was of great need to the society, who perhaps did
not even live in a city; therefore, we chose an excellent doctor living in a
mountain town, San Vito di Cadore. He was the symbol of the millionth user of
mobile telephone systems in Italy. I still remember that episode very clearly.
Even the then president of IRI, Mr Prodi, took part in the award ceremony; he
though we had reached a goal that could not be beaten. Instead, we later
achieved 3, 5, and then 8 million and we are now at 90 million.
Journalist: To what
extent can the competition also be praised for the emergence of the provider
that used to be called Omnitel, as far as market openness is concerned?
Vito Gamberale: There is
no doubt that the competition also had its merits, just as we knew it would
have. Omnitel was champing at the bit, it even wanted the market to slow down until
it was ready. Instead we were aware that the market would be certainly huge. I
remember that, when I said that even children would have a simplified mobile
telephone to talk to their mums and avoid feeling homesick while in
kindergarten, there was a parliamentary interrogation claiming that the
hypothesis of a child having a mobile telephone was a provocation. This was
part of the device’s progress later on, but I compare it to the development of
cars, the cheaper cars of the Fifties and the development of household
appliances; this represented a greater revolution, but it still belongs in that
category. I have to say that sometimes Italy manages important achievements
but, while it is living these experiences, it does not perceive them. Indeed
only bad stories are read in Italy; positive stories are not spread since they
don’t represent news. I think that, if another Country in Europe had lived the
cutting-edge development we achieved with mobile telephone systems in Italy, it
would have promoted itself as the European NASA for mobile telephone systems.
Unfortunately, in Italy those who did so were accused of acting like a “State
boyar”: it is true that the action of the competition gave a boost, but it is
also true that Telecom Italia, which came from the pubic sector, carried out a
lethal counterattack by introducing prepaid cards and left the “new comer”,
Omnitel, with 100 contracts a day while we were signing 100 thousand a day.
That was not because we were dominant, but because we had prepared the killer
move of prepaid cards: that was an epic period and I wish our Country could
recognise that it lived this period as a pioneer before other Countries, and
enjoy them and boast about them, even as a source of encouragement and emulation. Today there are many other
examples of areas for which Italy should be proud, but this is not the way
things work.
Journalist: Another
question from a listener.
Listener: What Mr Gamberale is saying
is very beautiful; I would like to add that we should remember that we have to
thank a great Italian called Gugliemo Marconi for making this innovation, since
mobile phones come from telegraphs. I think that remembering him as well is
important and beautiful from a cultural point of view. What do you think about
this?
Vito Gamberale: I fully
agree with you, since mobile telephones are nothing but transistor radios that
receive and transmit; this is a perhaps an over-simplification, clearly, but it
is true. Therefore, you are certainly right and what you are saying confirms
the point I was making, namely that Italy does give care of its own brave
pioneers due prominence; Marconi would have been regarded as an eternal hero in
another Country, while in Italy he is hardly remembered, you are perfectly
right.
Journalist: By the
way, Mr Gamberale, we have not recalled another killer mover as you call it,
namely SMS, which started silently and then enjoyed an incredible boom.
Vito Gamberale: This is a
very valid point. I like numbers very much: 140 billion minutes in telephone
traffic are used in Italy a year and 100 billion SMS are sent a year, i.e.
slightly less than 4 SMS a day per person. This is an important figure, if we
consider that children and the elderly are included…
Journalist: Then
there was a period where people were talking about video calls, with the launch
of UMTS, but it was not as successful as was expected; why in your opinion?
Vito Gamberale:
Videophones, including fixed ones, have never been appealing, since telephones
combine communication with privacy; therefore, they allow speakers to talk more
freely than when they see each other; as a consequence, in a sense, they also
allow shy people to express themselves.
Journalist: Thank
you for being here with us to recall those epic years, Mr Gamberale. Have a
good evening.
Vito Gamberale: I wish
you and all our listeners a good evening.
