Digital Landscape in Italy

PROSPECTS

Mobile proximity expected to benefit from government’s “Italian cashless” measures

Mobile proximity growth set to grow on the back of Italy’s new cashless legislation introduced at the end of 2019. This was among the government’s key measures to counteract tax evasion and drastically reduce cash transactions across small independent outlets and help digitalisation within retail and foodservice.

Digitalisation extended across all consumer segments

Mobile bill payments are set to continue growing, helping digitalisation expand further among consumers of all ages, boosted by simplification of bill payments, including granting access to public services such as public and private healthcare services. The launch of the app Sanità a KM0 Ricette, for example, which is being promoted by Italian GPs, grants easier access to prescriptions.

First 5G networks open in cities such as Rome and Turin

The Italian government opened bids for telco companies, universities and other research institutions to take part in the development of 5G from July 2018. With a total of EUR6.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Vodafone and TIM leading 5G development in Italy

Vodafone Italia had launched the initial phase of commercial 5G services in five cities across the country by mid-2019: Milan, Turin, Bologna, Rome and Naples. The local arm of the UK telco company is using equipment from Nokia and Huawei for its commercial 5G deployment in Italy.

Smartwatch proximity payments to benefit from players’ new payment solutions

Increasing competition is expected in smartwatches in terms of proximity payments. Dynamism in this category should come from the introduction of payment solutions by Apple, Samsung, Garmin and Fitbit.

Food delivery services offer great potential for mobile remote payments

Competition within food delivery services is also interesting to track, due to the strong growth in this area. Fierce competition is growing with the digitalisation of payments and is set to drive mobile remote payment solutions even further into outlets that otherwise would not have the capability to invest in such technology.

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