WIND (Italy)

Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1997
Headquarters	Rome, Italy
Key people	Andrew Mark Davies (Chairman), Maximo Ibarra (CEO)
Products	Fixed telephony Mobile telephony Broadband Internet IT Services IPTV
Revenue	€4,428 billion (2015)
Operating income	€945 million (2015)
Number of employees	6,865 (2015)
Parent	Wind Telecom
Website	http://www.windgroup.it/eng/

Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA (also known as Wind Italy) is an Italian telecom operator which offers integrated mobile, fixed and Internet services (under Wind brand for mobile and business services and under Infostrada brand for home). Wind Italy has 21.6 million mobile customers with a market share of 22.9% (placing itself behind TIM and Vodafone Italy) 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 TIM). The company serves 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 in 1997 by the Italian Electrical Company Enel, which sold Wind in 2005 to Wind Telecom S.p.A. (former Weather Investments). In 2006 the group appointed Khaled Bichara as the Chief Operating Officer of the company. In 2011 Wind became part of Vimpelcom group, after a merger between the Russian company and the Egyptian Orascom Telecom: the newborn group appointed Khaled Bichara Chairman of Wind and Ossama Bessada CEO, after Luigi Gubitosi's exit.

Wind was the third mobile operator to join the Italian market (after TIM and Vodafone Italy, formerly known as Omnitel Pronto Italia).

Wind currently runs a GSM (900/1800/E900), GPRS, EDGE, UMTS (videocall and mobile broadband), HSPA and LTE network. 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.

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 Telecom Italia and Vodafone.

On August 6th 2015 VimpelCom Ltd (Wind) and CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd (3) have agreed to combine their Italian telecommunications units in a deal valued at 21.8 billion euros ($24 billion), creating a carrier that would unseat Telecom Italia SpA (Telecom Italia Mobile) as the country’s largest wireless provider by customers.

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.

In 2015, it was awarded the title of Telecommunications Operator of the Year in Italy.

Sponsorship

Wind was the main sponsor of A.S. Roma football club until 2013.

See also

• Wind Hellas
• Wind Telecom, parent company.
• Wind Mobile, a Canadian company that licenses the WIND brand

External links

• Official website