brand be merged into this article . discuss proposed since june 2016 . telecom italia spa type societ per azioni traded as bit tit industry telecommunications founded 1925 as stipel 1964 as sip 1994 as telecom italia 2015 as tim commercial rebrand only headquarters rome italy key people flavio cattaneo ceo 1 giuseppe recchi chairman of the executive board products fixed telephony mobile telephony broadband internet it services networking solutions digital television revenue 21.57 billion 2014 operating income 4.53 billion 2014 2 net income 2.35 billion 2014 2 total assets 71.55 billion 2014 2 total equity 21.67 billion 2014 2 owner vivendi 24.9 % number of employees 66 025 2 website www.telecomitalia.com telecom italia is an italian telecommunications company headquartered in rome which provides telephony services mobile services and dsl data services . it was founded in 1994 by the merger of several state owned telecommunications companies the most important of which was societ italiana per l esercizio telefonico p.a. known as sip from the earlier societ idroelettrica piemontese the former state monopoly telephone operator in italy . 3 the company s stock is traded in the borsa italiana . contents 1 history 1.1 1925 64 stipel company and early mandatory phone tax 1.2 1964 94 sip company 1.3 1994 2005 telecom italia telecom italia mobile and dsl services 1.4 2005 14 telecom italia spa bought by telef nica 1.5 2015 rebrand 2 legal problems 2.1 telecom italia mobile illegal charging money for free internet providing renewals 2.2 fraud in brazilian prepaid mobile lines 3 operations 4 sustainability 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit 1925 64 stipel company and early mandatory phone tax edit in 1925 the phone network was reorganised by benito mussolini cabinet and stipel company was established in the same year . the original core of telecom italia includes also 4 more different companies timo teti telve and set . each of them worked in a specific geographical area . 4 it was in 1964 that these companies merged in one single group under the name of sip . 1964 94 sip company edit in 1964 the sip societ idroelettrica piemontese a former energy company founded in 1918 ceased producing energy and acquired all of the italian phone companies becoming sip societ italiana per l esercizio telefonico . it was run by the italian government ministry of treasury . sip was the unique phone network monopolist in italy from 1964 to 1996 and italian people had to pay the canone telecom mandatory telecom tax of about 120 per year plus hardware and bills in order to have a phone at home . 1994 2005 telecom italia telecom italia mobile and dsl services edit telecom italia was officially created on 27 july 1994 by the merger of several telecommunication companies among which sip iritel italcable telespazio and sirm . 5 6 this was due to a plan of reorganization of the telecommunication sector presented by iri to the minister of treasury . in 1995 the mobile telephony division was spun off into tim telecom italia mobile . interbusiness italy s largest internet network was created and in the same period with tin telecom italia net and the first isps internet became a reality in italy too . 7 in 1996 tim introduced a new prepaid rechargeable phone card 8 gsm and one year later launched the short messaging service sms capability.in 1997 under the chairmanship of guido rossi telecom italia was privatised and was transformed into a large multimedia group . in 2001 the company had a lot of debts and in the same year the company was bought by marco tronchetti provera . the year after in 2002 the group released its dsl flat service in italy alice adsl with a download speed of 32 kbit s and an upload speed of 8 kbit s for 40 month plus a monthly based tax of 14.57 the canone telecom besides the mandatory monthly bills for the home telephone numbers without a home telephone number you couldn t get the adsl service . telecom italia media the multimedia company of the group born in 2003 from seat pagine gialle focused its business on television sector with la7 and mtv channels . 9 after the reorganization of editorial activities in 2005 telecom italia acquired tin.it and virgilio from telecom italia media . 10 the telecom italia group also operates in south america in brazil as tim brasil and in argentina and paraguay with telecom argentina group . tim brasil has its brazilian headquarter in rio de janeiro . 11 2005 14 telecom italia spa bought by telef nica edit telecom italia had bigger debts in 2005 and one year later ceo marco tronchetti provera resigned . 12 in 2007 the company was bought by telco composed by telef nica and several italian banks . 13 telef nica currently owns 46 % of telco the holding company that controls 22 % of telecom italia . in late 2013 telef nica announced its intention to acquire the entirety of telco by january 2014 potentially becoming telecom italia s largest shareholder . the plan however is being challenged by the brazilian competition authority since telef nica and telecom italia with vivo and tim respectively are the two largest telephone companies competing in brazil . 2015 rebrand edit in 2015 telecom italia group started a rebranding process of the telephony and mobile branch under the single tim brand . 14 in the same year the board of directors approved the new company s division the infrastrutture wireless italiane or inwit which operates 11 500 wireless towers . 15 16 it was revealed in october 2015 that shareholders vivendi would raise their stakes further in the company from its current level of 15.49 % . 17 legal problems edit telecom italia mobile illegal charging money for free internet providing renewals edit telecom italia mobile illegally chared money for internet providing renew subscriptions for 5 years to its customers during the free subscription renewals . 18 fraud in brazilian prepaid mobile lines edit on 8 august 2012 tim brasil became involved in a massive scandal in brazilian news after the release of report by the brazilian national telecommunications agency anatel . 19 the report points that on tim s prepaid voice plan 24.7 % market share called infinity in which the user pays roughly us 0.12 for each unlimited time call the calls were intentionally dropped by the company forcing the customers to make and pay for new calls to keep talking . in just one day 8.1 million calls were dropped and the total profit was approximately 2 million . upon release of the report the public ministry of the paran state filed a lawsuit against tim asking that it stop selling new mobile lines in brasil and pay a multimillion dollar fine for the damages against consumers . 20 operations edit the telecom italia group provides phone landline services and mobile services in italy gsm mobile phone services in italy and brazil through its tim subsidiary tim brasil and dsl internet and telephony services in italy and san marino . it also operates in international telecommunication services for other operators and corporations through its subsidiary telecom italia sparkle . in 2013 the total amount of the company s debt is about 26 billions . 21 telecom italia controls also olivetti a manufacturer of computer peripherals and mobile phones . on march 31 2014 telecom italia leads both the direct fixed access lines market with 62 0 % and the mobile postpaid segment with 45 % of market share . in the mobile prepaid segment telecom italia owns 31 5 % of market share together with vodafone . 22 after the merger of wind and 3 italia approved on august 6 2015 telecom italia is now the second country s largest carrier with 30 million costumers followed by vodafone 25 millions 23 but it preserves its leadership on the direct fixed access lines market and the mobile postpaid segment . 24 telecom italia has 66 025 employees . sustainability edit in 2002 telecom italia subscribed to the united nations corporate responsibility initiative global compact . 25 it is also member of a number of stock market indexes which include companies focused on corporate social responsibility including the dow jones sustainability indexes and those administered by ftse group s ftse4good . its part owned brazilian subsidiary tim participa es is listed in the bovespa s ise ndice de sustentabilidade empresarial index . 26 telecom italia promotes a sustainability strategy including both environmental and social issues on june 2014 it signed an agreement with a2a to buy energy only from renewable sources . 27 see also edit italy portal companies portal inwit telecom italia mobile telecom italia tower naples stet references edit press release new ceo appointed . telecom italia . retrieved 2016 03 30 . a b c d e annual report 2014 pdf . telecom italia . retrieved 2016 03 03 . telecom italia mobile s.p.a. history economics and politics of telecommunications telecom italia history on official site news archive on corriere.it news archive on corriere.it the economics of mobile telecommunications page 45 reference 50 telecom italia media official site news archive on ilsole24ore tim participa es s.a. pirelli as manager and investor in telecom italia 2001 2007 telef nica gets controlling stake in telecom italia telecom italia group 2015 2017 strategic plan approved cumulative investments planned totalling around 14.5 billion euros over the three year period . telecom italia . retrieved 2015 04 02 . aycock jason 5 june 2015 . telecom italia gets ok for towers ipo values it at 2.34 b . seeking alpha . lennighan mary 5 june 2015 . telecom italia gets regulatory ok for 1bn towers ipo . total telecom . exclusive vivendi moves to raise telecom italia stake to around 19 percent sources . reuters . 1 october 2015 . https www.latecnosfera.com 2013 05 ecco come tim frega 3 o 4 euro ai suoi.html g1 tim derruba os sinais de clientes de forma proposital aponta relat rio not cias em paran . g1.globo.com . retrieved 2012 08 17 . g1 minist rio p blico pede a suspens o de venda de chips da tim no paran not cias em paran . g1.globo.com . retrieved 2012 08 17 . costanza iotti . telecom patuano prepara la guerra a fossati . in ballo c uno stipendio da 1 milione il fatto quotidiano . il fatto quotidiano . retrieved 2015 04 21 . osservatorio trimestrale sulle telecomunicazioni . agcom.it . the merger wind 3 italia may unlock convergence opportunities tlc nozze tra wind e 3 italia . fusione da 6 4 mld per il nuovo leader del mercato mobile sustainability report 2009 pdf . telecom italia . retrieved 2010 07 27 . notice bovespa ise . tim participa es s.a. retrieved 2013 04 29 . telecom italia signs an agreement with a2a to buy energy only from renewable sources external links edit media related to telecom italia at wikimedia commons official website v t e italian mobile network operators 3 tim vodafone wind italian mobile virtual network operators 1 mobile a mobile bt coopvoce daily telecom mobile erg mobile fastweb green telecomunicazioni lycamobile postemobile ringo mobile tiscali former mvnos mtv mobile v t e open handset alliance mobile operators bouygues telecom china mobile china telecom china unicom kddi nepal telecom ntt docomo softbank mobile sprint corporation t mobile telecom italia telef nica telus vodafone software companies access ascender corporation ebay google myriad group nuance communications nxp software omron packetvideo svox visualon semiconductor companies akm semiconductor inc. arm holdings audience broadcom csr plc joined as sirf cypress semiconductor freescale semiconductor gemalto intel marvell technology group mediatek mips technologies nvidia qualcomm qualcomm atheros renesas electronics st ericsson joined as ericsson mobile platforms synaptics texas instruments handset makers acer inc. alcatel mobile phones asus chaudhary group association of lg cci dell foxconn garmin htc huawei kyocera lenovo mobile lg electronics