TELECOM ITALIA PROFITS UP 33.2%.

On November 19, Telecom Italia announced a 33.2% improvement in pre-tax profits for the first nine months of 1998 to 8,313 billion Lire (USD5 billion). Turnover has risen 6.1% to L32,952 billion with income from fixed telephony up 2.1% and receipts from the group's mobile telephony subsidiary TIM up 23.7%. A number of analysts had expressed concerns that fierce competition from the Olivetti/Mannesmann joint venture Omnitel on Italy's mobile telephony market, the most lucrative in Europe, might have a greater impact on Telecom Italia. The total volume of traffic...