AGCOM will hope that new stickers for 5G services do not lead to the same unintended consequences than with its labelling system for fixed broadband
Colour-coded stickers for 5G tariffs have been implemented across the mobile market
On 19 November 2025, a requirement to adopt new coloured speed labels, or ‘stickers’, for 5G services came into force in Italy following a six-month transition period. Under the mandatory labelling system, which was approved by AGCOM in May 2025, mobile operators must now display one of three square-shaped stickers on each of their 5G offers to indicate to consumers whether those propositions come with speed limits or not. Operators' use of speed limits, including some as low as 30Mbps or even 10Mbps, prompted the regulator to intervene to improve transparency in the market and to help make it easier for end users to distinguish between the different features of 5G tariffs. Operators have responded to the regulation with varying levels of urgency, with Fastweb + Vodafone and Wind Tre implementing the sticker system as of 1 September 2025, whereas Iliad Italia only adopted the labels a matter of days before the deadline.
Operators must display green, yellow or red labels depending on the service offered
According to Article 6 of AGCOM’s regulation, the three types of sticker should all display the word 5G in white writing and are colour-coded according to the following tiers:
Green stickers: 5G offers without speed limits, which must also state the maximum achievable speed (e.g. 2Gbps);
Yellow stickers: 5G offers with maximum download speeds of 20Mbps or higher, which must be stated on the sticker itself; and
Red stickers: 5G offers with maximum download speeds of up to 20Mbps, which again must again be stated on the sticker.
The regulator also requires that for any 5G plans that have different limits for download and upload speeds, asymmetric performance levels must be indicated separately in the writing inside the sticker – for instance, as “limited to 30/10Mbps” in the case of a yellow sticker tariff. Further, AGCOM has stated that no offer can use the term 5G unless it is based on internationally-agreed standards for non-standalone or standalone 5G networks.
AGCOM’s traffic light system for fixed broadband has been broadly successful
The new 5G stickers are purposefully square in order to differentiate them from the round stickers for fixed broadband services provided over ADSL (marked with a red label), FTTC and FWA (yellow), and FTTP (green) that were introduced following a February 2019 decision by AGCOM. Wholesale operator Open Fiber welcomed the move, stating that it would determine once and for all when the term fibre could be used for advertising purposes, adding that it had been applied incorrectly in the past. While AGCOM’s traffic light system has generally worked well and deterred operators from referring to FTTC services as full fibre connections, it has nonetheless resulted in some unintended consequences. Specifically, operators continue to advertise FTTP, or green sticker, connections to consumers, even if the technology is not available in a given area. So long as the operator includes a warning to consumers to verify availability at their address, they can use the green label, potentially misleading consumers.
