Vodafone Italy

Vodafone Italia S.p.A.[1] (formerly Vodafone Omnitel B.V.) is an Italian telephone company, subsidiary of Vodafone. 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%.[2]

Vodafone Italia
TypeSocietà per azioni
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1994
Founder
Headquarters
Ivrea (TO) and Milan
,
Italy
Area served
Italy
Key people
  • Aldo Bisio (CEO)
  • Pietro Guindani (Chairman)
ProductsMobile and fixed telephony, DSL, fiber-optic and fixed wireless communications, Internet service provider
Number of employees
6,536 (2019)
ParentVodafone (100%)
SubsidiariesVEI S.r.l.
Websitewww.vodafone.it

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

History
Omnitel's logo, used from 1994 to 2001.

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.[3]

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,[4] 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).[5]
  • 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.[6]
  • 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 shut 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:

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 800/900/1500/
1800/2100/2600 MHz
225 Mbit/s 4,000 LTE Advanced March 2020
5G 1.8 Gbit/s 75 Mbit/s 60 NR 3700 MHz March 2022

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.

Fixed network

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

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 (in Italy)

Mobile telephony

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

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%)[2]

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)[2]

References
  1. "Chi siamo". www.vodafone.it (in Italian). Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  2. "Osservatorio sulle comunicazioni". www.agcom.it (in Italian). Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  3. Un'australiana di 23 anni la ragazza dello spot con i tasti del telefonino come impronte digitali Archived October 2, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Page 19 (16 April 1999) - by Veneziani Maria Teresa, Corriere della Sera
  4. "Vodafone to acquire Tele2's businesses in Italy and Spain". vodafone.com. October 6, 2007. Archived from the original on 2010-01-08. Retrieved 2010-01-13.
  5. "Vodafone Omnitel cambia ragione sociale". cellularitalia.com (in Italian). December 2013. Archived from the original on 2014-08-12. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  6. "Vodafone Informa". www.vodafone.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2016-12-01. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
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