Digital Championship Speech by, Telecom Italia Chairman April 23, 2015
Thank you Riccardo. Meanwhile, you chose your city as a starting point. Well, this city is actually part of a long tour. However, there could not have been a better place as a starting point because this city has been a starting point for many things regarding the country's technology. Then of course, we often complain that many things have gone. However, being here has a symbolic value, because we are talking about a place that at the time was even the starting point for the SIP. However, Turin is particularly attentive to transformations as it has always been. I grew up here and I experienced it first-hand. Instead, some people criticize that there may not be so many activities in Turin; I find it a transformed city. I also read in the notes of the Councillor, who will speak later on: "What is my dream: to ensure that the city will become the place people compete to visit". This is exactly the sense of being here. Today, this is a competition, the competition of the future, and we want to be a part of it. I would like to thank Riccardo. A cheerful, funny and useful competition, because in the end everyone wins. That is, they are five great projects that we however want to pursue and that we want to develop. Obviously, we will pick one with a real competition mechanism because there you have score signs like in real games and you have to give a score. Fantastic. This is how it is. This is how it is. That is, as you know from the jury regulation, we anticipate... the regulation says that in the event of a tie, you decide. 2
Ah, good, good. This is the rule. It is very simple. This is a privilege that I rarely have. I never have it at the Company,. Transparency so to speak. It does not even happen at Telecom, shall we say. Today, you play, so if you are tied, you decide. This is the point. Fantastic. All right? However, it will not be difficult. Actually, it will be very difficult to choose the projects. It will not be difficult to agree. I wanted to say something very important. In thanking Riccardo, who I met recently. Riccardo told me that he started out as a journalist, but he is not a journalist... he is anything but. He is a volcano of ideas. We seized this idea on the fly, like many others that he has proposed. Why? Because we are a telephony company, but not only. A Company that connects people. As Telecom Italia, I also told him many times, we need to be the centre of reference of thought for everything concerning ICT, digital culture, modernization. That is, you think about Silicon Valley when you think about America; in Italy, my ambition is that you think about Telecom Italia. Thus being, shall we say, founders of a concrete operation, for which we always say: "It would be nice if all the municipalities of Italy could have digital competence", then this operation 3
becomes real, because it becomes widespread in eight thousand municipalities. Ensuring this will happen, also through the support of Telecom Italia, is a great pride for us. Today, Riccardo says, there are already two thousand people, but I believe that requests for participation are already oversubscribed. Two thousand municipalities. Two thousand municipalities. They are actually two thousand municipalities. Well, indeed. Therefore they are oversubscribed. Of course. So I hope phase two will be very soon. Phase two is the one for which these people in the municipalities will transform the way in which the municipalities interface with people, that is how all us citizens will be able to take advantage of this great revolution that we are experiencing in these times. So I would like to thank you... All right.... for being here and I would like to thank you for having invented this. So we will provide them with the digital competences and you will provide them with ultrabroadband. Let's make this pact. 4
Absolutely. We are already working, this is important to say, and we have a challenging plan. It is often said that Italy is behind in the development of ultrabroadband, it is true, but, shall we say, the goal is... tomorrow. Because by 2017, which is in a year and a half, we will provide ultrabroadband to 75% of the population. Keep in mind that today we are at about 35%, last year we were at 25, so we are moving forward in full gallop, and in mobile ultrabroadband we will provide it for 95% of the population. I am talking about 4G and 4G+. Today with 4G+, which is the technology of the future, speeds of 150 mega are reached on mobile phones, so we are attached to this train and... we will reach it and Telecom Italia will do it because nobody like us... always remember when you hear talk about us that our Company is not the "finance fiction" which is always talked about, but we are talking about twenty thousand engineers, eight thousand people driving a Panda car that go to everyone's homes who are... who are engaged 24 hours a day, on every street, in every manhole, in every cabinet in our country. This is something we must be proud of, as much as we at Telecom are proud of doing this work. Thank you Riccardo. Take your place in the jury. Perfect. Thank you Mr. Chairman. 5