Vodafone Italy

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Vodafone Italia S.p.A.
FormerlyOmnitel Pronto Italia S.p.A. (1994-2002)
Vodafone Omnitel S.p.A. (2002-2002)
Vodafone Omnitel N.V. (2002-2013)
Vodafone Omnitel B.V. (2013-2015)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryTelecommunications
FoundedJanuary 1994; 30 years ago (1994-01)
Founder
Headquarters
Ivrea and Milan
,
Italy
Area served
Italy
Key people
ProductsMobile and fixed telephony, XDSL, FTTX and FWA communications, Internet
Revenue6,209,000,000 Euro (2017) Edit this on Wikidata
348,000,000 Euro (2017) Edit this on Wikidata
OwnerVodafone Europe (100%)
Number of employees
6,768 (2017) Edit this on Wikidata
ParentVodafone Group (in the process of being acquired by Swisscom; closing expected in the first quarter of 2025)
SubsidiariesVodafone Enabler Italia (100%)
Websitewww.vodafone.it

Vodafone Italy is the Italian subsidiary of the UK-based telecommunications company Vodafone Group. The company's headquarters are in Ivrea (TO) and Milan.

It has 30,153,000 mobile phone customers and 3,182,000 fixed phone lines, with respectively a market share of 28.5% and 16%.[1][2]

Since taking over the company, Vodafone has introduced in Italy services like Vodafone live!, the 3G, 4G and 5G mobile networks, DSL, fiber-optic and FWA services, and Mobile Virtual Network Operators for other corporations.

Vodafone's main competitors are FASTWEB, Iliad, TIM and Wind Tre.[2]

History

In December 1995, Omnitel Sistemi Radiocellulari Italiani (founded on June 19, 1990, by Olivetti, Lehman Brothers, Bell Atlantic and Telia) and Pronto Italia (made up of Zignago Vetro, AirTouch, Mannesmann, Banca di Roma, Arca merchant, Comeba, Ersel, Erg, Urmet TLC, Spal TLC, Site, Ponti Radio and Fergia[3][4]) merged into Omnitel Pronto Italia,[5] which launched a mobile telephony service, the second in Italy after TIM (formerly SIP).[6] Olivetti, the original majority shareholder, through Omnitel and Infostrada (which dealt instead with fixed telephony), thus competed with Telecom Italia, which until then monopolized the entire telecommunications sector in Italy.

In 1999, Olivetti sold its interest in Omnitel and Infostrada to the German consortium Mannesmann, after Olivetti took control of Telecom Italia. By this time, Mannesmann had a majority stake in Omnitel with a 53.7% equity stake. The following year, Vodafone merged with Mannesmann thereby taking control of Omnitel. The merger led in 2001 to the change of company name to Omnitel Vodafone, and in 2002 to Vodafone Omnitel, and in the same year the registered office was transferred from Ivrea (TO) to Amsterdam, thus passing from being a società per azioni (S.p.A.) legally registered in Italy to a naamloze vennootschap (N.V.) legally registered in the Netherlands

In 2004, the company launched UMTS services in 140 cities. Two years later, it lso launched HSPA services.

In 2007, Vodafone bought the Italian and Spanish branches of Tele2.[7]

Following the acquisition of Tele2 Italia (in 2010 renamed TeleTu), in 2008, Vodafone launched in Italy XDSL services, offering Wi-Fi and VoIP to its customers, and between 2013 and 2014, launched also FTTX services.

In 2012 has enabled LTE technology services in Milan and Rome.

On 16 December 2013, following Verizon's sale of the entire share capital held in the company to Vodafone, it was transformed into a besloten vennootschap (B.V.)[8]

Between 2014 and 2015, started enabling LTE-A and VoLTE services to its mobile customers, and in 2017 launched LTE-A Pro services in Milan, Palermo and Florence.

On 23 November 2015, the company moved its legal residence in Turin, returning to be a joint-stock company legally registered in Italy.[9]

On 23 January 2017, Vodafone launched the brand ho-mobile, to provide low-cost mobile telephony services in competition with Iliad.[10]

In 2019 launched 5G NR services in Milan, Rome, Turin, Naples and Bologna. Its GigaNetwork 5G is considered the evolution of the previous GigaNetwork 4.5G, which has been re-used to launch the 5G service.

In 2021 the company shuts down its 3G network, in order to enhance the 4G and 5G ones.

On 15 March 2024, Swisscom purchases 100% of Vodafone Italy for 8 billion euros, thus merging it with its subsidiary FASTWEB. As part of the agreement, Vodafone will continue to provide certain services, such as branding, to FASTWEB for up to 5 years.[11][12][13][14][15][16]

Brand identity

Evolution of the company brand and logo:[17]

  • 1994-1996
    1994-1996
  • 1996-2001
    1996-2001
  • 2001-2002
    2001-2002
  • 2002-2003
    2002-2003
  • 2003-2006
    2003-2006
  • 2006-2017
    2006-2017
  • 2017-present
    2017-present
  • In 1994 the company debuted on the market with the Omnitel brand.
  • In 2001, following the takeover of Vodafone Group as shareholder, the brand became Omnitel Vodafone.
  • In 2002 the brand was changed to Vodafone Omnitel, to symbolize the progressive transition from Omnitel to Vodafone.
  • In 2003, the Omnitel brand was definitively abandoned in favor of Vodafone.

Network and coverage

Mobile network

As of March 31, 2022 Vodafone Italy's mobile network is made from 21,785 physical sites, including:

  • 21,000 base transceiver stations LTE (4G);
  • 1,300 base transceiver stations NR (5G).

The national mobile network covers:

Network Full Speed Coverage System Update
Download ↓ Upload ↑ Cities Population (%) Technology Frequencies used
2G 474 kbit/s 99.8% GSM / GPRS / EDGE 900 MHz March 2022
4G 150 Mbit/s 50 Mbit/s 7,627 99.0% LTE 700/800/900/1500/
1800/2100/2600 MHz
225 Mbit/s 4,000 LTE-A/LTE-A Pro March 2020
5G 1.8 Gbit/s 75 Mbit/s 60 NR 2100/3700 MHz March 2022

International roaming

Vodafone Italy has signed international roaming agreements with 731 operators in 241 countries.[citation needed] As of June 30, 2016, about 150 of these operators in 100 countries allow customers to reach 4G LTE coverage.[citation needed]

Fixed network

Vodafone Italy's fixed network includes 1,254 sites ULL, 326 sites SLU and 19,000 ONU (cabinet) in fiber-optic (FTTC).[citation needed]

Technology Full Speed Coverage Typology Update
Download ↓ Upload ↑
ADSL 20 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s WLR
ADSL2+ 52% of the population ULL
FTTC
(VDSL2) 		100 Mbit/s 20 Mbit/s 102 cities VULA November 2018
FTTC
(E-VDSL) 		200 Mbit/s 2,328 cities SLU May 2019
FTTH 2.5 Gbit/s 500 Mbit/s 130 cities (on Open Fiber's network) GPON May 2021

Customers

Mobile telephony

Decrease 18.17 million mobile lines (for a market share of 23.3%)[2]

Decrease 14.69 million consumer mobile lines (21.6%) and Decrease 3.43 million business mobile lines (34.4%)
Decrease 15.43 million prepaid mobile lines (22.3%) and Increase 2.71 million subscription mobile lines (30.7%)

Fixed telephony

Increase 3.18 million of total fixed lines (for a market share of 16%)[2]

Decrease 447.400 fixed broadband lines (for a market share of 10.1%)
Increase 2.60 million fixed ultra-broadband lines (for a market share of 18%)

M2M

Increase 11.98 million SIM (of which 47% is used in applications of info-mobility and Smart card)[2]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vodafone Italy.

References

  1. ^ "Chi Siamo - Vodafone Italia". corporate.vodafone.it. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Osservatorio sulle comunicazioni". www.agcom.it (in Italian). Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  3. ^ "Zignago esce da Pronto Italia, cede ad AirTouch e a Mannesmann". Corriere della Sera. 14 September 1996. Archived from the original on 22 June 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  4. ^ "Pronto Italia stanzia 250 miliardi". Corriere della Sera. 14 January 1994. Archived from the original on 22 June 2015.
  5. ^ "Omnitel nell'Enciclopedia Treccani". Treccani (in Italian). Retrieved 24 September 2017.
  6. ^ "640 in rete al servizio del cellulare". Corriere della Sera. 22 December 1995. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015.
  7. ^ "Vodafone to acquire Tele2's businesses in Italy and Spain". vodafone.com. 6 October 2007. Archived from the original on 8 January 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2010.
  8. ^ "Vodafone Omnitel cambia ragione sociale". cellularitalia.com (in Italian). December 2013. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  9. ^ "Vodafone Informa". www.vodafone.it (in Italian). Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  10. ^ Filippo Vendrame (31 January 2018). "Vodafone, il suo operatore virtuale è pronto". WebNews. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  11. ^ Times, The Swiss (28 February 2024). "Swisscom Want to Buy Vodafone & Merge it With Fastweb". The Swiss Times. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  12. ^ Doran, Neal; Purnell2024-02-28T13:34:00, Joseph. "Vodafone lines up Italy escape, taking €8bn in Fastweb cash". TelcoTitans.com. Retrieved 15 March 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Sharma, Ray. "Swisscom to Acquire Vodafone Italia from Vodafone Group, to Merge with Fastweb". www.thefastmode.com. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  14. ^ "Swisscom buys Vodafone Italia in $8.7 billion deal". Yahoo Finance. 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  15. ^ "Swisscom to Buy Vodafone's Italian Business for €8 Billion". Bloomberg.com. 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  16. ^ Lead, Telecom (15 March 2024). "Swisscom Announces EUR 8 Billion Acquisition Deal with Vodafone Italia". TelecomLead. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  17. ^ "La nostra storia - Vodafone Italia". corporate.vodafone.it. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
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