WIND Hellas

Infobox_Company
company_name = WIND HELLAS TELECOMMUNICATIONS S.A
company_
company_type = Private
location = Athens, Greece
foundation = 1992 as TELESTET
industry = Mobile Telecommunications
products = WIND Plus, WIND Platinum, BBest, WIND FTG, WIND Card etc
homepage = [http://www.wind.com.gr/ www.wind.com.gr]

WIND Hellas is a mobile telecommunications company with its headquarters located on Kifisias Avenue, in the northern Athens suburb of Marousi. WIND currently uses the "Πολύ περισσότερα" slogan which in English means "Much More".

The WIND brand name was introduced to Greece on 5 June 2007 when the company rebranded from the name TIM.

This is the second rebranding in the history of the company. Before the introduction of the TIM brand name on 8 February 2004, all products and services were marketed under the brand name of TELESTET (subsidiary of the Italian company STET) which had been used since the company commenced operations. It is now a subsidiary of WIND of Italy.

WIND Hellas subscriber numbers in Greece today begin with the 3 digit prefix 693 followed by a seven digit subscriber number, although due to the advent of number portability in Greece, it's possible for customers to take their number to another network with them. Since the networks of WIND Hellas was merged with Q-Telecom's in May 2007, WIND Hellas subscribers numbers today also begin with the 3 digit prefix 699 followed by a seven digit subscriber number.

History

WIND Hellas was established in 1992. It was the first company in Greece to be granted a license for the creation of a national mobile telephony services network (GSM).

To obtain this license WIND Hellas invested the sum of 30 billion drachmas (about 88 million Euros), which constituted one of the biggest investments in Greece since the end of the Second World War. The company initiated its activities in the Greek market under the brand name TELESTET on June 29 1993 when the first call from a mobile phone took place in the country.

For the next 12 years the company became established in the Greek mobile telephony market thanks to the high telecommunications technology and its innovations, since it has been the first company to offer to Greek mobile phone users the most pioneering services and products, such as the widely known Β-Free, a product that consumers today still identify with the notion of pre-paid mobile telephony.

In 1998 WIND Hellas was the first Greek mobile telephony company to be listed in international stock markets, the NASDAQ in New York City and the Amsterdam stock market, where its shares are still being negotiated today.

In the beginning of June 2001, WIND Hellas was the first telecommunications company in Greece and one of the first in the world to obtain the Quality Management certificate ISO 9001: 2000.

On February 8 2004, the company’s brand name changed to TIM, thus introducing in the Greek market the name of the parent company, which participates in the telecommunication Group of Telecom Italia as well as "FreeMove", the biggest telecommunications alliance in Europe that consists of the companies Orange (UK/France), Telefónica (Spain), ΤΙΜ (Italy) & T-Mobile (Germany).

On April 4 2005, TIM subsidiary TIM International N.V. executed an agreement for the disposal of its 80.87% equity stake in TIM Hellas to funds advised by Apax Partners and Texas Pacific Group (TPG). The price of the transaction was €1,114.1 million which corresponds to an enterprise value of €1,600 million for 100% of TIM Hellas and it’s equivalent to approximately €16.43 per share. The closing of the transaction and the approval by the competent authorities were finalized in July 2005.

In April 2007, TIM Hellas was purchased outright by Weather Investments, the Telecom holding company of Egyptian Tycoon Naguib Sawiris, CEO of Orascom Telecom. [cite web |url=http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=17610&email=html |title=Telegeography Website April 26, 2007] The brand name changed to WIND on 5 June 2007, the same name as the Italian Wind mobile operator also obtained by Naguib Sawiris in 2005.

ee also

*Wind Italia
*Communications in Greece

External links

* [http://www.wind.com.gr/ WIND Hellas' Website]

References