IP: Mlan Diary --Trip to Italy

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

I am on United over the Atlantic as I type this note. I have just made  a 
short trip to Milan Italy to give one of the two keynotes at the SMAU 
business expo in Milan.

It is the second largest in the world with CBit the largest but larger than 
Comdex etc.  The keynote session was attended by the Minister of 
Communications of Italy as well as a  member of the Senate and a 
Commissioner of their Regulatory Body. Dr. J. Rifkin  and I gave the two 
speeches. His addressed the change from a market economy to a network 
economy (note the term network  talks about the business structure not the 
internet). I talked about the significant changes in communications 
technology and the impact on regulators , business , citizens and 
governments. It was very well received.

The fair grounds were enormous -- building upon building of exhibit halls. 
In the main the visitors were  Italian - young  and the language Italian. I 
toured the halls in a rush with a writer for the Economist.

  To me the main highlight was an exhibit by the company who is in 
cooperation  with the electric company are installing fiber to the home in 
Milan. It delivers 10 megabit plastic fiber into the home offering a POTS 
telephone capability and video on demand as well as Internet access. The 
system can deliver 100 MB and is limited to 10 per home till the 
demand  shows. The video streaming was obviously high quality ..  They 
claim good economics. It is interesting that Japan has talked about this 
for a decade and looks like it is now happening but in Milan not Tokyo and 
NOT the USA. Italy has very little cable and a lot of DBS.

When I arrived I purchased a SIM card for my GSM phone for L100000 ~ $50. 
That gave me a Milan number and $25 of calls. You pay for only outgoing. I 
called home at 10 pm and 6 AM and the cost for a short call was $.50 each 
NOT the $4.00 for the ATT SIM card etc.  This idea works all over the world 
( well in GSM countries ) and in most places newsstands sell the cards.

Italy is cell phone mad. !!

I did not get much of a chance to see Milan except as I was driven about 
the city to meetings. the Queen of England was there also!!.

The Milan people and the Italians as a whole were extremely good hosts. The 
food was outstanding!. I was taken to dinner at  a restaurant founded in 
the 1600s and the service and food was first rate. I thought the US had 
good Italian food till now.

I look forward to the opportunity to visit Italy again  sometime.



Dave