Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A., more commonly known as Wind, was an Italian

telecommunications company A telecommunications company is a kind of electronic communications service provider, more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Many t ...

of the VimpelCom Ltd.

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

, which offered

mobile telephony Mobile telephony is the provision of wireless telephone services to mobile phones, distinguishing it from fixed-location telephony provided via landline phones. Traditionally, telephony specifically refers to voice communication, though th ...

services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a ...

and, through Infostrada, also

fixed-line telephony A landline is a physical telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber from the subscriber's premises to the network, allowing multiple phones to operate simultaneously on the same phone number. It is also referred to as plain old ...

services,

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

and

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...

. It was founded on 1 December 1997 by

Enel Enel S.p.A. is an Italian multinational manufacturer and distributor of electricity and gas. Enel was first established as a public body at the end of 1962, and then transformed into a limited company in 1992. In 1999, following the liberali ...

France Télécom Orange S.A. (; formerly , stylised as france telecom) is a French multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications corporation founded in 1988 and headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. ''Orange'' has been the corporation' ...

and

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

, and then passed in 2005 under the control of Weather Investments, which in 2011 will become part of the VimpelCom group. On 31 December 2016, the

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

between

3 Italy Hutchison 3G Enterprises S.A.R.L., commonly known as Hutchison 3G (acronym H3G) and trading as 3 (Three), is the owner of a brand name that operates several Mobile network, mobile phone networks and broadband Internet Service Provider, Interne ...

and Wind into

Wind Tre Wind Tre S.p.A., stylized as WINDTRE, is an Italian telecommunications company of the CK Hutchison Holdings, CK Hutchison Holdings Limited Company group, group, which offers Mobile telephony, mobile and fixed-line telephony Service (economics), ...

was completed. This merger project, carried out by

CK Hutchison Holdings CK Hutchison Holdings Limited () is a Hong Kong–based and Cayman Islands–registered multinational conglomerate corporation. The company was formed in March 2015 through the merger of Cheung Kong Holdings and its main associate company Hutc ...

and VimpelCom, envisaged the creation of an equal

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

to combine

telephony Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunications services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is ...

services in Italy. However, the Wind

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

remained active until 16 March 2020, when it was replaced by the single Wind Tre brand. Wind had 21.6 million mobile customers with a market share of 22.9% (placing itself behind TIM and

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...

) and 2.8 million customers on fixed-lines with a market share of 13.2% (that makes it the second largest fixed line operator, behind

Telecom Italia TIM S.p.A. (formerly Telecom Italia S.p.A.) is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples (with the Telecom Italia Tower), which provides fixed, public and mobile telephony, and DSL data services. It is ...

). The

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

served through a network of 159 owned stores and around 498 exclusive franchised outlets under the Wind brand, as well as 396 electronic chain stores.

History

Wind was established on 1 December 1997 by

and

, which sold Wind in 2005 to Weather Investments. In 1999

Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been owned b ...

sells Infostrada to

Mannesmann Mannesmann was a German industrial conglomerate. It was originally established as a manufacturer of steel pipes in 1890 under the name "Deutsch-Österreichische Mannesmannröhren-Werke AG" (lit. "German-Austrian Mannesmann pipe-works joint-s ...

and in 2001 it will become the property of Enel, which will

incorporate Incorporation may refer to: * Incorporation (business), the creation of a business or corporation * Incorporation of a place, the creation of municipal corporation such as a city or county * Incorporation (academic), awarding a degree based on the ...

it in 2002 into Wind, that continued to use the

. In 2006 the

appointed Khaled Bichara as the

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

of the

. In 2011 Wind became part of

VimpelCom VEON Ltd. (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.), also known as VEON Group, is a multinational telecommunication and digital services company. Headquartered in Dubai, the company is publicly traded on the U.S.-based NASDAQ stock exchange. VEON operates in ...

group, after a

between the

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n company and the

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian

Orascom Telecom Global Telecom Holding S.A.E. (GTH; formerly Orascom Telecom Holding) is a holding company based in Amsterdam, and a subsidiary of the multinational telecommunications services company VEON. GTH previously owned mobile network operators in multipl ...

: the newborn group appointed Khaled Bichara

Chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

of Wind and Ossama Bessada

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

, after Luigi Gubitosi's exit. Wind was the third

mobile operator A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a mobile network provider, mobile network carrier, mobile , wireless service provider, wireless carrier, wireless operator, wireless telco, or cellular company, is a telecommunications provider of se ...

to join the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

market, after TIM (formerly SIP) and

(formerly Omnitel). Wind had run a

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

(

900 __NOTOC__ Year 900 ( CM) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Abbasid Caliphate * Spring – Forces under the Transoxianian emir Isma'il ibn Ahmad are victorious at Balkh (Northern Afghan ...

1800 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 18), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 12 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 16), ...

/ E900),

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), also called 2.5G, is a mobile data standard on the 2G cellular communication network's Global System for Mobile Communications, global system for mobile communications (GSM). Networks and mobile devices wit ...

EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technolog ...

( videocall and

mobile broadband Mobile broadband is the marketing term for Wireless broadband, wireless Internet access via mobile network, mobile (cell) networks. Access to the network can be made through a portable modem, wireless modem, or a Tablet computer, tablet/smartp ...

HSPA HSPA may refer to: * High Speed Packet Access, a mobile broadband technology * Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Education * High School Proficiency Assessment * Humphrey School of Public Affairs, an American public policy school * Hunter Sch ...

and

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a mobile telephony standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement ** LTE Advanced Pro, a further enhancement * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers * Leukotrie ...

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

. While the GSM/GPRS/EDGE network is available almost everywhere, UMTS, HSPA and LTE are still expanding in the country. Wind has been also the exclusive provider for Italy of

i-mode i-mode (, ) is a Japanese mobile internet (distinct from wireless internet) service operated by NTT DoCoMo. Unlike Wireless Application Protocols, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail, and ...

. In April 2013, Wind announced it would be investing $1.3 billion on building a fourth-generation ( 4G) mobile broadband network to catch-up with its rivals TIM and Vodafone. During 2015 and 2016, an agreement was stipulated between

, owner of

, and VimpelCom for the creation of an equal

in Italy. On December 31, 2016, Wind was

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

with 3 Italy into

. Despite the merger, the Wind and Infostrada brands continued to operate independently of the 3 Italy brand in the private sector. On May 23, 2017 Wind Business was merged with 3 Business, giving life to Wind Tre Business, which combines all the services dedicated to

VAT A value-added tax (VAT or goods and services tax (GST), general consumption tax (GCT)) is a consumption tax that is levied on the value added at each stage of a product's production and distribution. VAT is similar to, and is often compared wi ...

-registered customers and companies. On March 16, 2020, after the merger of the Wind-3 mobile networks completed at the end of 2019, the company carried out a

rebranding Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

, replacing the old Wind and 3 Italy brands with the new Wind Tre single brand, both for

and for

Awards

In 2009, it launched a project named 10decimi which was meant to facilitate the communication between donors and the charities they support. The venture won them the "Lombard Elite – The Milan Finance Company" award for their dedication to

corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social impact is a form of international private business industry self-regulation, self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropy, philanthropic, activist, or chari ...

. In 2015, it was awarded the title of

telecommunications operator A telecommunications company is a kind of electronic communications service provider, more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Many t ...

of the Year in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Sponsorship

Wind was the main sponsor of

A.S. Roma Associazione Sportiva Roma (''Rome Sport Association''; Italian pronunciation: ) is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its exis ...

football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

from 2007 to 2013.

Infostrada

Infostrada S.p.A., more commonly known as Wind Infostrada, was the

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A. that dealt with its

xDSL Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric dig ...

and

optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

. Infostrada was born in 1996 from an agreement between Olivetti Telemedia and

Bell Atlantic A bell Help:IPA/English, /ˈbɛl/ () is a struck idiophone, directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficien ...

, with the aim of competing with

in the fixed telephony sector. At the end of 1996 the

had 430

employees Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

and closed the first

financial year A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...

with a turnover of 72 billion lire. In 1997

took over from the American partner, controlling Infostrada through the Dutch Olivetti Mobile Telephony Services, then OliMan (50.1% Olivetti, 49.9% Mannesmann), which will also become a

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the ...

of Omnitel. In 1998 Infostrada reached an agreement with

Ferrovie dello Stato Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. (; ; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the initialism FS) is Italy's national state-owned enterprise, state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estate service ...

which provides for the acquisition of the right to access the infrastructure of the FS for the laying of telephone cables and the right to use part of the optical fiber cables of the RFI (approximately 1770 km), for 30 years. In 1999 Olivetti sells Infostrada to Mannesmann and in 2001 it will become the property of

, which will

it in 2002 into Wind, that continued to use the

. On December 31, 2016, Wind. merged into

, and as also happened for Wind, the brand will still be used by the company until the

in March 2020.

Brands and logos

Wind

File:Wind no slogan.png, 1997–2012 File:Wind Logo.png, 2012–2018 File:Wind Telecomunicazioni logo 2017.png, 2018–2020

Wind Business

File:Wind Business logo 2012.png, 2012–2017

Infostrada

File:Infostrada old logo.jpg, 1996–2002 File:Infostrada 2002 Logo.jpg, 2002–2006 File:Infostrada no slogan.png, 2006–2012 File:Infostrada logo 2012.png, 2012–2017 File:Infostrada logo 2017.png, 2017–2020

Shareholder structure

The Wind group was structured as follows:

References

External links

Official website
{{VimpelCom Telecommunications companies of Italy Internet service providers of Italy Mobile phone companies of Italy Companies based in Rome Telecommunications companies established in 1997 Italian companies established in 1997 Former Enel subsidiaries VEON Italian brands

History

Awards

Sponsorship

Infostrada

Brands and logos

Wind

Wind Business

Infostrada

Shareholder structure

See also

References

External links