Wind (Italy)


Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A. was an Italian telecom operator which offers integrated mobile, fixed telephony and Internet services. Wind Italy had 21.6 million mobile customers with a market share of 22.9% and 2.8 million customers on fixed lines with a market share of 13.2%. The company 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. In 2016, Wind merged with 3 Italy to form Wind Tre.

History

Wind was established in 1997 by the Italian Electrical Company Enel, which sold Wind in 2005 to Wind Telecom S.p.A.. 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.
Wind had run a GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, 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 mobile broadband network to catch-up with its rivals Telecom Italia and Vodafone.
On August 6, 2015 VimpelCom Ltd and CK Hutchison Holdings have agreed to combine their Italian telecommunications units in a deal valued at 21.8 billion euros, creating a carrier that would unseat Telecom Italia SpA as the country’s largest wireless provider by customers.
On March 6, 2020 the unification process with Tre Italia S.p.A. began.

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 from 2007 to 2013.