«Worldspace has announced that its majority-owned Italian subsidiary, Worldspace Italia S.P.A. has received approval from the Italian Ministry of Communications to launch a subscription satellite radio service in Italy. The authorization grants Worldspace Italia the right to provide a subscription-based satellite radio and data service to consumers in Italy, and to use the frequency band 1,479.5MHz to 1,492MHz for the operation of the corresponding hybrid satellite/terrestrial network.

Worldspace Italia's minority partner is New Satellite Radio S.R.L. New Satellite Radio is expected to play an integral role in operational execution of the service in Italy, including distribution arrangements, such as OEM partnerships, content supply and acquisition, and marketing.

Worldspace Italia anticipates initial service to portable and vehicular devices in 2007, using an existent satellite and a terrestrial gap-filler network to be debuted in all major cities throughout Italy, pending approval of the company's installation plan by the Ministry. Italian subscribers will have eventual access to about 50 channels of diversified sports, talk and commercial-free music programming»

fonte: «Worldspace Gets Nod for European Satellite Radio», Radio magazine, 24/5/06, http://beradio.com/digital_radio_update/Digital_radio_update_052406/#euro