Wind Tre S.p.A., stylized as WINDTRE, is 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 CK Hutchison Holdings Limited

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 offers mobile and fixed-line telephony services. It was born on 31 December 2016 from 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 ...

of two Italian telecommunications companies, namely

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 Telecomunicazioni, controlled respectively by CK Hutchison Holdings and VimpelCom. Since 7 September 2018, CK Hutchison Holdings has been the sole

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 Wind Tre as, following approval by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

, the

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

group completed the acquisition of the remaining 50% of the company from VEON (formerly VimpelCom). As of 2022, it is the first Italian mobile operator for SIM HUMAN, third instead after 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 ...

in total active cards.

History

On December 31, 2016, the project to create 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 ...

between

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 ...

, owner of

, and VimpelCom, owner of Wind Telecomunicazioni, was completed. The project envisaged the

of 3 Italy and Wind into Wind Tre. On 7 September 2018, VEON (formerly VimpelCom) sold its 50% stake in Wind Tre to CK Hutchison Holdings, which thus became the sole

. Despite the merger, 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 ...

kept the Wind, 3 Italy and Infostrada

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 ...

s active (with the exception of Wind Business and 3 Business which became Wind Tre Business on 23 May 2017) until 16 March 2020, when the company started a process of

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 ...

that led to the birth of the unified brands Wind Tre, Wind Tre Business and Very Mobile (born on February 24, 2020, as a

Mobile Virtual Network Operator A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobil ...

to compete with

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

, ho-mobile and Kena Mobile). Very Mobile was the first MVNO to market its offers also on

eSIM An eSIM (embedded SIM) is a form of SIM card that is embedded directly into a device as software installed onto a eUICC chip. First released in March 2016, eSIM is a global specification by the GSMA that enables remote SIM provisioning; end ...

and to experiment with

VoLTE Voice over Long-Term Evolution (acronym VoLTE) is an LTE high-speed wireless communication standard for voice calls and SMS using mobile phones and data terminals. VoLTE has up to three times more voice and data capacity than older 3G UMTS an ...

and VoWiFi technologies. As of August 2022, the company has obtained authorization from AGCOM to start a collaboration with Iliad for 5G sharing in rural areas with low population density. In January 2023, the creation of the Zefiro Net joint venture, jointly controlled by the two companies, was completed. On February 2, 2024, Wind Tre signed an agreement for the acquisition of the

assets In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that can b ...

, including the network infrastructure, of OpNet (formerly Linkem), which will be acquired 100% by Wind Tre together with all other

subsidiaries A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a 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 subsidiary company. Unl ...

, excluding Tessellis (formerly Tiscali). On August 1, the transaction was completed.

Brands and logos

Wind Tre

File:Wind Tre logo.svg, 2016–2020 File:Wind Tre logo 2020.svg, 2020–present

Wind Tre Business

File:Wind Tre Business logo.jpg, 2017–2020 File:Wind Tre Business logo 2020.svg, 2020–present

Very Mobile

File:Very Mobile logo.svg, 2020–present

Discontinued

File:Wind più vicini NEW logo.png,

Wind Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

File:Three logo.svg,

File:Infostrada - Wind Tre Logo.png, Infostrada

Shareholder structure

The Wind Tre group is 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 Milan Telecommunications companies established in 1999 Italian companies established in 1999 3 (company) CK Hutchison Holdings VEON Italian brands Former joint ventures