"We don't get too focused on how to make money yet, " says Patrick Scaglia, Kay's boss at HP.

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Scaglia predicts the company will break even on a cash flow basis (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization EBITDA) by 2003.

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And Silvio Scaglia had a track record for keeping promises at Omnitel.

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No one would ever call Silvio Scaglia a buffone, Italian for fool.

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Scaglia is unusual in placing great emphasis on winning residential customers.

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Scaglia in five years transformed the Olivetti subsidiary, Omnitel Pronto Italia, into Europe's second-largest national wireless operator, stepping down when Olivetti bought Telecom Italia in 1999.

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Nor label Scaglia's friend and backer, Francesco Micheli, uno stupido.

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"We can offer 10-megabit-per-second connections over the Internet, " boasts Scaglia.

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Laurent believes that Scaglia will keep that promise.

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Scaglia, 42, the CEO, is equally unflappable.

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Instead, Scaglia has chosen to collaborate with AEM, the recently privatized Milanese electrical utility, to build a home- base network alongside of AEM cables in and around Italy's richest city, Milan, which accounts for 30% of the country's telecom spending.

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Scaglia says that e.

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