Vodafone Italia

Details

Published on Saturday, 30 April 2011

Written by David Chambers

Vodafone Italia is Italy's second largest mobile network provider (after TIM) with over 30 million subscribers. Originally launched by Olivetti as Omnitel, Vodafone acquired it when they took over Mannesman Germany, rebranding the business to Vodafone Italia and adding fixed line services in 2010 after buying Tele2.

It launched two sizes of femtocell product in April 2011 (or more detail here in Italian):

• a smaller one priced at 169 euros for residential and SOHO use. This can handle 4 concurrent active calls or data sessions, covering a range of 90 square meters.
• a larger model priced at 549 euros for business users, which can handle 8 concurrent active calls/data sessions and cover up to 500 square meters.

Choosing not to use the same "Sure Signal" branding of other Vodafone affiliates, the product is sold in shops under the name "Booster".

The same business model is followed as used elsewhere in the group.
There are no different call or data charges for using the femtocell.

The one-off purchase price can be spread over 24 months, reducing the cost to as little as 5 euros a month.

The solution is provided by Alcatel-Lucent, who also supply many other Vodafone affiliates.