Iliad Italia facts for kids
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | August 2, 2016 |
| Founder | Xavier Niel |
| Headquarters |
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Italy
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Area served
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Italy |
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Key people
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| Products | Mobile and fixed-line telephony |
| Owner | Iliad (100%) |
| Parent | Iliad |
| Subsidiaries | Zefiro Net (50%) |
Iliad Italia S.p.A. is a big Italian company that helps people talk on their phones and use the internet. It's like a younger sibling company to a larger French group called Iliad S.A.. As of December 2022, Iliad Italia was the fourth largest mobile phone company in Italy. It had over 9.5 million active phone lines. Other big companies in Italy are Wind Tre, TIM, and Vodafone.
Contents
How Iliad Italia Started
Iliad Italia S.p.A. was created in 2016. It became the Italian part of the French company Iliad S.A.. In 2017, Iliad Italia started getting special radio frequencies. These frequencies were given up by Wind Tre after they joined with another company called 3 Italy. This was part of a plan approved by the European Commission.
By the end of 2017, Iliad had taken over almost 300 sites from Wind Tre. The rest were planned to be transferred by the end of 2019. The main French company, Iliad, said it would invest more than €1 billion. This money was for starting and growing the new mobile company in Italy. It also included money to get new 5G frequencies. They also planned to hire about a thousand people.
Key Moments in Iliad Italia's Growth
On January 16, 2018, Benedetto Levi was announced as the head of Iliad Italia. They also showed their new logo and website. To build their own network across Italy, Iliad Italia made a deal on February 16, 2018. They partnered with a Spanish company called Cellnex. This deal allowed Iliad Italia to use over 7,700 cell phone antennas in Italy.
The company officially launched on May 29, 2018. They presented their phone plans and started selling SIM cards. People could get new numbers or keep their old numbers from other companies. Just under two months later, on July 18, 2018, Iliad Italia announced a big success. They had reached one million customers!
By early August 2018, they had 1.5 million customers. On September 6, 2018, Iliad Italia announced they had reached two million customers. This showed how quickly they were growing.
In the first half of 2021, Iliad Italia reached a special point. They started making a profit for the first time since they began. This is called reaching the "break-even point."
Expanding to Home Internet
On March 6, 2020, Iliad Italia received permission to offer public phone services. This came from the Ministry of Economic Development in Italy. Then, on July 7, 2020, they made a deal to offer home internet. They could use Open Fiber's super-fast fiber-optic network. They also signed a similar agreement with Fastweb on October 6, 2022.
On August 9, 2021, Iliad became a partner of FiberCop. Then, on January 25, 2022, they officially launched their fiber optic home internet. This service offers very fast speeds. It uses both the Open Fiber and FiberCop networks. Iliad provides special internet boxes called "iliadbox" to their customers.
As of January 2023, Iliad Italia's mobile network had about 16,200 active sites. About 9,470 of these sites are owned by Iliad. The other 6,730 sites are in less crowded areas. These are part of a shared company called Zefiro Net, which Iliad Italia owns half of with Wind Tre.
How Iliad Sells SIM Cards
Iliad brought a new way to buy SIM cards to Italy. They use special machines called "SIMboxes." These machines were first used in France by Free Mobile in 2014. SIMboxes are like vending machines for phone SIM cards. They let customers sign up and buy a SIM card all by themselves.
Iliad's Network
Iliad is building its own 3G, 4G, and 5G networks. But to make sure everyone has coverage, they also have an agreement with Wind Tre. This agreement allows them to share parts of the 3G and 4G networks. They also have a "roaming" agreement for 2G. This means if Iliad's network isn't available, your phone can still connect using Wind Tre's network.
Iliad has made deals with companies like Cellnex (in February 2018) and INWIT (in February 2019). These deals help Iliad install its antennas on their towers.
Iliad Italia uses equipment from companies like CommScope. They are also working with Cisco Systems (since April 2019) and Nokia (since September 2019). These partnerships help them build a very modern national network in Italy. They are also working to create their 5G network.
See also
In Spanish: Iliad Italia para niños
