Wind Telecomunicazioni

Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A., more commonly known as Wind, was an Italian telecommunications company of the VimpelCom Ltd. group, 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 became part of the VimpelCom group.

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. However, the Wind brand remained active until 16 March 2020, when it was replaced by the single Wind Tre brand.

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.

Wind was established on 1 December 1997 by Enel, France Télécom and Deutsche Telekom, which sold Wind in 2005 to Weather Investments.

In 1999 Olivetti sells Infostrada to Mannesmann and in 2001 it will become the property of Enel, which will incorporate it in 2002 into Wind, that continued to use the brand.

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.