Wind (Italy)

Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A.

Wind headquarters in Rho, Italy
Company type	S.p.A.
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1 December 1997; 26 years ago (1997-12-01) in Rome, Italy
Founder	Enel France Télécom Deutsche Telekom
Defunct	December 31, 2016 (2016-12-31) (as company) March 16, 2020 (2020-03-16) (as brand)
Fate	Merged with 3 Italy into Wind Tre
Successor	Wind Tre
Headquarters	Rho and Rome , Italy
Area served	Italy
Key people	Maximo Ibarra (CEO)[1]
Products	Mobile telephony, fixed-line telephony, Broadband Internet, IT Services, IPTV
Revenue	4,633,000,000 Euro (2014)
Operating income	−709,000,000 Euro (2014)
Owner	Wind Telecom (99.996%)
Parent	VimpelCom
Subsidiaries	Infostrada (100%)
Website	www.wind.it

Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A., more commonly known as Wind, was an Italian telecommunications company of the VimpelCom Ltd. group,^[2] which offered mobile telephony services and, through Infostrada, also fixed-line telephony services, Internet and IPTV.

It was founded on 1 December 1997 by Enel, France Télécom and Deutsche Telekom, and then passed in 2005 under the control of Weather Investments, which in 2011 will become part of the VimpelCom group.^[3]

On 31 December 2016, the merger between 3 Italy and Wind into Wind Tre was completed. This merger project, carried out by CK Hutchison Holdings and VimpelCom, envisaged the creation of an equal joint venture to combine telephony services in Italy.^[4][5] However, the Wind brand remained active until 16 March 2020, when it was replaced by the single Wind Tre brand.^[6]

Wind had 21.6 million mobile customers with a market share of 22.9% (placing itself behind TIM and Vodafone) 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). 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.^[7]