The European Commission had declared that all member states would have to open their markets and guarantee competition in the telephone markets by January 1998. But the pressure for business interests made the European Commission anticipated the cellular telephony, which started in 1994. However some liberalization was subject to interpretation by the countries involved. The state-owned TIM had had a monopoly over the Italian telecommunications market until that time. But the market changed when the Omnitel started to sell cellular service in 1995.
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