rates an 6.6. TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTUREFEASIBILTYWeb TV in Italy appears feasible. Around 98% of Italian families own a television. 95% own a telephone. 20% have a personal computer. 19% own a cellular phone. And only 1.1% have an Internet connection. I have rated the feasible factor an 8 (favorable). This is because it is very important for Philips that Italians have the necessary equipment to operate Web TV. These statistics confirm that they do. CABLE NETWORKS & SATELLITEItaly's free television is causing cable and satellites to be more desirable. The reason it has become more desirable is due to cable and stalite offering a superior service. Only 1.9% of those Italians who have a television possesses cable and this expected to grow to 25%.. We rate this factor an 8 (favorable). This is because a possible competitor is currently weak. INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS (CHECK FLOW)There are currently 300 ISP’s in Italy. Of those Italians who are on the Internet, 98.46% use Netscape Navigator. Out of the 300 ISP’s in Italy, “Flat Rates” have become the standard, however, that has caused lingering, bottlenecks, and slowdowns. The standard prices are around 300,000 lire (US$185) per year, making it one of the cheapest countries in the world. Companies have been forced to lower rates to compensate for the average 960,000 lire (US$600) per year in local phone calls. Some ISP’s are raising prices to weed out users and offer better bandwidth. I have rated the ISP’s factor an 8 (favorable). This is because of the large number of ISP's. They bring competition, which lowers the prices and encourages use. TELEPHONE LINESTelecom Italia controls the phone lines and currently has very high rates making the cost of surfing the web too high for many Italians, even though, the web subscription rates are cheap. The government is expected to reduce Telecom Italia’s tariffs for long-distance...
