The Italian telecommunications provider, La Societa per l’esercizio delle Telecomunicazioni pA, or SIP for short, has announced plans to enable large users to circumvent the creaking analogue network. Beginning in September 1992, Italy’s biggest and most advanced telecommunications users will be able to connect all their sites to digital phone services, even if the local hub has yet to be converted from analogue to digital. These clients, which SIP numbers at about 2,500 out of 4.5m business users, have sites scattered all over Italy, albeit with a concentration of the most important ones in major metropolitan areas, and an urgent need for a variety of advanced telecommunications services to transmit voice, data and image. They are found in various business sectors, including credit, public administration, industry, services, publishing and research. As of today, only 37% of the Italian telephone network has been digitised, making it impossible to receive digital services in many locations around the country. SIP says that its Start system will provide its big users with all the advantages of a digitised hub without them having to wait for the complete digitisation of the national network, which is expected in 1995. Start will provide large-scale users with a digital bridge based on fibre optic technology, which should provide growth capacity for future wide-band services, and a single, integrated method of access to all telecomms services for those clients, called II Sistema di Accesso Flessibile, or SAF. Through SAF, users will be able to connect to all existing network services: the general telephone network, CDA Collegamenti Diretti Analogici, direct analogue connections for voice or data; CDN Collegamenti Diretti Numerici, direct digital connections; Rete Fonia Dati Voice Data Network, either analogue or digital; ITAPAC packet-switching; and satellite services. SAF will also connect to services in the process of being introduced, such as ISDN and wide-bandwidth networks. In accessing the telephone network, SAF-equipped Start sites will not connect to the usual local hubs, but link directly to a high-priority digital switch, Stadi di Gruppo Urbani, or SGU. Connections to both SGU and the special wide-band network will be carried over fiber-optic channels, duplicated to ensure high levels of reliability and availability. La SIP will provide a test version of the network in the first quarter.
