Vodafone Italy

Vodafone Italia S.p.A. (formerly Vodafone Omnitel N.V.) is an Italian telephone company, subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc. 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%.

The company's headquarters are in Ivrea ( TO) and Milan. Vodafone Italy's main competitors are Fastweb, Iliad, TIM and Wind Tre.

History

In December 1995, Omnitel Pronto Italia S.p.A. launched Omnitel, a mobile operator, and Infostrada, a fixed operator later incorporated in Wind Telecomunicazioni. The companies belonged to Olivetti and represented the first available telephone alternative to TIM and Telecom Italia.

The original majority owner — Olivetti — sold its interest in Omnitel and Infostrada to the German consortium Mannesmann, after Olivetti took control of Telecom Italia.

By 1999, 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 created the joint-stock company Vodafone Omnitel N.V., a legally registered company registered in the Netherlands. The Vodafone brand was introduced as ''Omnitel Vodafone'' in 2001 and renamed ''Vodafone Omnitel'' in 2002. The current name ''Vodafone Italia'' was introduced in 2003. Vodafone Italy introduced the new speech mark logo on June 10, 2007.

The company's early slogan "''Life Is Now''" differed from its international campaign slogan "''Make the most of now''", but the company has since adopted a single global slogan, "''Power To You''". The initial URL of the company's website was "190.it," since 190 is the customer care number for Vodafone Italy. The URL changed to "vodafone.it" in July 2008. The company's spokesmodel from 1999 to 2006 was the Australian model Megan Gale.

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 fixed wireless access services, and Mobile virtual network operators for other corporations.

Growth and expansion

* In 2004, Vodafone launches UMTS services in 140 cities.
* In 2006, Vodafone launches HSPA services.
* In 2007, Vodafone bought the Italian and Spanish branches of Tele2, later renaming it to TeleTu in 2010, and offering fixed-line network services.
* In 2008, Vodafone launches its ADSL service, offering Wi-Fi and VoIP to its customers.
* In 2012, Vodafone launches LTE services in Milan and Rome.
* Between 2013 and 2014, Vodafone launches its FTTC and FTTH services.
* On 16 December 2013, Vodafone Omnitel N.V. changed its name to Vodafone Omnitel B.V. and became a limited liability company (LLC).
* Between 2014 and 2015, Vodafone launches LTE-A and VoLTE services.
* On 23 November 2015, Vodafone Omnitel B.V. moved its legal residence to Italy, changing its name to Vodafone Italia S.p.A. and becoming a joint-stock company.
* In 2017, Vodafone launches LTE-A Pro services in Milan, Palermo and Florence.
* In 2019, Vodafone launches 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, Vodafone shuts down its 3G network, in order to enhance the 4G and 5G ones.

Network and coverage (Italy)

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:

International roaming

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

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Fixed network

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

Customers (in Italy)

Mobile telephony

18.17 million mobile lines (for a market share of 23.3%)
: 14.69 million consumer mobile lines (21.6%) and 3.43 million business mobile lines (34.4%)
: 15.43 million prepaid mobile lines (22.3%) and 2.71 million subscription mobile lines (30.7%)

Fixed telephony

3.18 million of total fixed lines (for a market share of 16%)
: 447.400 fixed broadband lines (for a market share of 10.1%)
: 2.60 million fixed ultra-broadband lines (for a market share of 18%)

M2M

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

References

External links

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{{Authority control

Vodafone
Companies based in Milan
Telecommunications companies established in 2003
Mobile phone companies of Italy
Italian companies established in 2003