TIM Group


TIM S.p.A. is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples, which provides fixed, public and mobile telephony, and DSL data services.
It is the largest Italian telecommunications services provider in revenues and subscribers. It was founded in 1994 by the merger of several state-owned telecommunications companies, the most prominent of which was SIP, the former state monopoly telephone operator in Italy.
The company's stock is traded in the Borsa Italiana. The Italian State has exercised the "Golden Power" on TIM since 2017, which allows the government to take a number of actions when the strategic interests of the country are concerned.
It has also a subsidiary in Brazil, known as TIM Brasil, with 72.6 million customers. The brand covers over 114 million customers worldwide.
As April 2024, Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Italy and Brazil.

History

Origins

In 1925, the Italian phone network was reorganised by the Benito Mussolini cabinet and the company STIPEL was established in the same year. The original core of Telecom Italia included four companies which operated in a specific geographical area: TIMO, TE.TI., TELVE and SET.
In 1964, Società Idroelettrica Piemontese, a former energy company founded in 1918, ceased producing energy and acquired all of the Italian telephone companies, becoming Società Italiana per l'Esercizio Telefonico. It was run by the Italian Ministry of Finance.
SIP was a state monopoly from 1964 to 1996 and Italian people had to pay the "Canone Telecom" in order to have a phone at home.

1994–2005: Telecom Italia, Telecom Italia Mobile and DSL services

The first appearance in the Italian mobile telephony market dates back to 1990 with the launch of the TACS network by the Telecom Italia Mobile Radio Services division.
Telecom Italia was officially created on 27 July 1994 by the merge of several telecommunications companies, including SIP, IRITEL, Italcable, Telespazio and SIRM. This was due to a reorganization plan for the telecommunications sector presented by Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale to the Minister of Finance.
In 1995, the mobile telephony division was spun off as Telecom Italia Mobile, while Telecom Italia, under managing director Francesco Chirichigno, would take care of fixed and public telephony and network infrastructure.
On 7 October, after the experimentation period at the CSELT, TIM launched the first rechargeable prepaid card for Italy, the TIM Card, becoming the first telephone company in the world to introduce this charging system.
Towards the end of 1996 TIM was the first world operator to launch a tariff plan based on a prepaid card on the GSM network, which in a short time generated rapid growth in mobile telephony.
Interbusiness, Italy's largest internet network, was created and in the same period with Telecom Italia Net and the first internet service providers, internet access became a reality in Italy.
In 1996, TIM introduced a new prepaid rechargeable phone card, and one year later launched short messaging service capability.
In 1997, under the chairmanship of Guido Rossi, Telecom Italia was privatised and was transformed into a large multimedia group.
By 2001, the company was in debt and was acquired by Marco Tronchetti Provera. In april 2001 it launched its first ADSL service for consumers with a download speed of 256 kbit/s and an upload speed of 128 kbit/s. The following year, the group released its DSL Flat service in Italy, Alice ADSL, with WiFi and a download speed of 256 kbit/s and an upload speed of 128 kbit/s for €40/month plus a monthly based tax of €14.57, the "Canone Telecom", besides the mandatory monthly bills for home telephone numbers. Telecom Italia Media, the group's multimedia company, was formed in 2003 from SEAT Pagine Gialle, focussing its business on the television sector with La7 and MTV channels.
After the reorganization of editorial activities, Telecom Italia acquired Tin.it and Virgilio from Telecom Italia Media in 2005.
The Telecom Italia Group also operates in South America; in Brazil as TIM Brasil, and in Argentina and Paraguay with Telecom Argentina. TIM Brasil has its local headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. Telecom Italia also had a 50% share in the Bolivian telecommunications company Entel until its share was nationalised by the Bolivian government in 2008.
In 2002, TIM was the first mobile telecommunications company in Europe to launch MMS services. Between 2002 and 2004, it launched some value-added services: SMS and MMS content, Internet browsing using WAP technology, games and Java applications.
In 2003, the world's first mobile television service was launched, exploiting the video playback capabilities appearing on mobile terminals in that period and, again in 2003, it stipulated an international roaming agreement, similar to that of Vodafone, with operators world's leading mobile. This alliance will be called FreeMove.
In 2004, as part of the TIM Turbo project, the EDGE and UMTS services were created for high-speed data transmission.

2005–2014: Telecom Italia acquired by Telefónica

In 2005, the first Italian mobile community, TIM Tribù, was formed.
In June 2005, TIM merged into Telecom Italia, remaining active as brand for Telecom Italia's mobile telephony offer.
Telecom Italia reported mounting debts in 2005, and, one year later, CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera resigned.
In 2007 the company was bought by Telco, a consortium of Telefónica and several Italian banks.
Telefónica owned 46% of Telco, the holding company that controlled 22% of Telecom Italia.
In December 2011, the company developed TIM Cloud, a cloud storage service dedicated to its customers where they can save digital files.
In November 2012, TIM launched its LTE network.
The TIM Wallet service was born in February 2013, to be able to make payments via smartphone thanks to NFC technology.
In late 2013, Telefónica 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 Telefónica and Telecom Italia, with Vivo and TIM respectively, are the two largest telephone companies competing in Brazil.
In 2014, multimedia entertainment services were launched through the TIMgames, TIMmusic, TIMreading and TIMvision applications.

2015: Rebrand

In 2015, the company started a rebranding process towards the unified TIM brand, which would no longer be used only to identify mobile telephony offers but also for fixed telephony ones, abandoning the Telecom Italia brand. In the same year, the board of directors approved the new company's division, Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane which operates 11,500 wireless towers.
TIM was the Official Global Partner of Expo 2015. Thanks to the company's contribution, it was possible to create the first Italian digital smart city, directly in the exhibition area. TIM has in fact equipped the entire area with technological solutions, fixed network, mobile and Internet infrastructures and coverage of the exhibition site with fixed and mobile ultra-broadband connections and Wi-Fi connections based on Cisco technology.

2015–2018: Vivendi

It was revealed in October 2015 that shareholders Vivendi would raise their stakes further in the company from its current level of 15.49%. As of May 2017, Vivendi owns 24.6% of the company with Vivendi's CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine becoming executive chairman of Telecom Italia. Amos Genish is the new CEO since 28 September 2017 and he has been criticized to have fired 4500 Telecom Italia employees in June 2018. He has been substituted by Luigi Gubitosi, who became the new CEO on 18 November 2018.
In 2016, following the rebranding that led to the adoption of the single TIM brand, the parent company also decided to change its identity. The company name of Telecom Italia it was in fact changed to TIM Group, however still maintaining the previous name on some occasions.

2023–2024: the spin-off of NetCo

On 12 June 2024 Moody's improves its rating on TIM, raising it to Ba3 from B1.
On 1 July 2024 the transfer of the network to KKR took place, with a debt reduction of €22 billion.
The operation values the network at a total of €18.8 billion, expandable up to 22 billion with the earn outs also linked to the possible merger between NetCo and Open Fiber.
On 9 July 2024, S&P, after the sale of the network to the KKR, promoted the TIM Group to BB from the previous B+, with the outlook remaining stable.
On 31 July 2024, Tim presented its half-yearly results, with a debt that after the sale of the network settles at €8.1 billion, with a further reduction of 0.6 billion expected for the end of the year. TIM had a turnover of €7.1 billion and an EBITDA of 2.1.
Fitch, following Moody's and S&P, upgraded the rating to BB with a stable outlook.
On 19 August 2024, TIM announces a partnership with Nokia to enhance the 5G mobile network in Brazil.
On 2 October 2024, TIM examines the proposal formulated by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance together with the Asterion fund for the purchase of the entire share of Sparkle. TIM would thus conclude the debt restructuring process by collecting an additional €700 million.
On 23 October 2024, corruption charges are formulated by the Guardia di Finanza and the Rome Prosecutor's Office against the director Simone De Rose, head of the Procurement function office of TIM Group and Emilio Graziano, manager of NTT Data Italia.
TIM immediately appoints a new manager, Giampaolo Leone. TIM evaluates a request for compensation for damages to the dishonest employee and collaborates with the Guardia di Finanza inspectors in the investigation.
On 5 November 2024, the subsidiary TIM Brasil has continued to show strong growth in revenues and profits, confirming itself as a strong cash flow generator for the group.
On 13 November 2024, TIM Group published Q3/9M 2024 Financial Results. TIM Group has revenues growing to €10.7 billion with gross operating margin rising to €2.7 billion, while Tim's adjusted net financial debt after lease is €8.0 billion.
On 17 December 2024, CVC Capital Partners is evaluating the purchase of Vivendi's entire stake in Telecom Italia and the stock rises by 5.7%.