From old-style dial telephones to new lines. From fibre optics to satellites. An open book, continually enlarged by the new frontiers of communication. While Sardinia is regarded by some as a southern disaster zone with levels of unemployment and an economy comparable with the third world, it is at the same time seen as one of the most advanced regions in the field of telecommunications. An "oasis" thanks to Telecom Italia (formerly known as SIP). This presents a positive way to break the many barriers blocking the island from the mainland and the rest of the world.

What role - present and future - do Sardinian telecommunications have?
I believe that telecommunications in an island region such as ours are fundamental because the modes of communication are by sea and air. If you take the many current difficulties of transport, both in terms of quality and cost, it's clear that new communication systems will bring Sardinians into closer contact with the rest of the world. We at Telecom Italia have recently been involved in the construction of a telecommunications network to help this region develop further. It has been done. In fact, Sardinia is in the vanguard of this field. We have a fibre optic network completely covering Sardinia and 80% of our new centres have been installed with this new technology. On the other hand, a problematic aspect of the new highway we have constructed is the real risk that Sardinian companies won't realise its full potential. Public institutions must play a key role here. The Sardinian regional government should aid promotion and development of new telecommunications technology to stimulate collective growth. Our region actually has about 600,000 telephone accounts out of a population of 1,600,000. If the average nuclear family contains 4 people, a quick calculation will show that we are at saturation point as regards the telephone. There has also been a considerable increase in the use of mobile telephones. The "telefonino" has rapidly become indispensible for Sardinian businessmen. It's not true that the telefonino is just a status symbol for VIPs. Today the mobile telephone is used by almost everyone, and the recent introduction of the "family tariff" has caused a further increase in its use. If you consider the undeniable problems we have here with transport and security, it's clear why it's becoming a necessity to have a telefonino in your pocket.

But still a costly necessity ...
I don't agree. We at telecom always say that while a mobile telephone is extremely useful, it should always be used with care. Otherwise there are problems when the bill arrives. I personally feel that mobile telephones are to be used mainly for work, where economic benefits are to be gained, and otherwise in cases of real necesity or at cheap call-times.

Following the new frontiers of communications you inevitably arrive at Internet, the new door to the future and to multimedia. What is Telecom doing in this field?
Telecom is currently making available the highway mentioned earlier. In a region with a high level of technology such as ours, there can be lots of ways of exploiting it. Obviously, before we can pass judgement on Internet we have to wait and understand what it really is, seeing as for the moment it's simply a big container wherein you find everything and nothing. As Telecom Italia, we offer for the moment only the cable for transmission of information, and have nothing to do with the contents - unlike in the case of the chat-lines, where we had to intervene when things got out of control.

Speaking of chat-lines, why did the Videotel and 144 systems fail?
We didn't actually fail as such. Our error was probably in the initial marketing strategy. The information suppliers profitted from this and created the series of problems that we now know only too well. Today, as far as Videotel is concerned, we are moving towards a "kiosk" system, where the user can personally control his terminal. For the 144 (chatline) service, the information providers who caused the problems between us and our clients have been removed. We mustn't forget that 144 also offers useful and interesting services at low prices. The cost problems don't actually concern us as Telecom. We are in fact in a free market, and tariffs are regulated by information providers. Telecom Italia, having now settled in as a company, is faced with an increasingly competitive international market. So, the competition being greater, we have a duty to defend the whole sector at international levels using our technology. The ideal solution would be to have a pre-arranged tariff reflecting service quality. But at the moment, I repeat, telephone tariffs are regulated by the government.

Telecom and tourism: does a synergy already exist?
I believe that in a region with a tourist vocation which is surrounded by sea, tour operators can't afford to pull the plug and destroy bridges with the rest of the world. The bridge we can ideally build is one of telecommunications. We are also starting "Turismatica" projects, which link tourism with technology. This would mean, for example, having telematic stations in hotels connected to databanks allowing the American, German, English or Japanese operator to obtain information directly from local travel agents or even from a particular hotel itself. In the next few years, technology will help us to connect to the rest of the world.

Is Telecom Italia thinking of providing any new technological services in the future?
We have a range of services for hotels and tourism in general. We are open to all new ideas. Thanks to the new networks. you can go to a hotel in central Sardinia and ask them to transmit pictures of it to a tour operator in New York to show him, for example, what the rooms or the landscape are like. Internet makes this possible and I personally feel we can't afford to miss this opportunity. We have to create more co-ordination between public companies and private businesses operating in this sector. It has to be at the forefront; it can't be left in a corner and forgotten.