With the acquisition of Vodafone Italia by Swisscom, the Italian telecommunications market is changing face. The completion of the process, which began in recent months, has led to the birth of Fastweb + Vodafone, a new company headed by Walter Renna, who has been managing director of Fastweb since October 2023. What also changes are the numbers and, therefore, the balance of power in the sector because the merger of two operators changes the balance of power in the fixed-line and mobile market.
The passage of Vodafone Italia under the aegis of Swisscom – the main Swiss telecommunications company, 51% of whose shares are owned by the Swiss Confederation, while 39.7% are in the hands of institutions and 9.3% are divided between private individuals – is an €8 billion operation, with the transaction being entirely cash and fully financed by debt. The aim is to integrate Vodafone’s Italian subsidiary with Fastweb, strengthening its position to compete and outperform Tim and Wind Tre in the market.
Swisscom and Vodafone Italia
This is possible thanks to the creation of a ‘convergent operator combining two high-quality mobile and fixed network infrastructures as well as all the skills and strengths of Fastweb and Vodafone Italia’. It is, in fact, a starting point from which Swisscom aims to accelerate growth in order to become profitable in the Italian market. According to the German company’s forecasts, the coming together of Fastweb and Vodafone will generate high stakeholder value, lead to investments in Italy and exploit economies of scale, with a more efficient cost structure and significant run-rate synergies of around €600 million per year.
As the numbers and respective paths show, the merger will allow the new entity to leverage Fastweb’s strengths in the fixed-line market and Vodafone’s leadership in mobile services. The integration of the two infrastructures is the necessary basis for offering innovative, competitively priced convergent services to Italian consumers and businesses. On the practical side, the priority is to increase the quality of service, free up resources to invest, and bring innovation to a sector that has been struggling in Italy for years.
Numbers never lie
The merger between Fastweb and Vodafone Italia resulted in a new operator with more than 20 million mobile customers and 5.6 million fixed-line customers. Numbers that make it the main infrastructure operator on the Italian market, with more than 20,000 mobile sites and a proprietary fixed network of 74,000 km, 50% of which is in FTTH (Fibre to the Home) technology. Natural, therefore, is the capillary coverage throughout the Italian territory.


According to the latest Agcom report, dated December 2024, Vodafone’s 26.4% added to Fastweb’s 3.7% determines a market share of 30.1%. A number that is worth the top of the market, ahead of Tim (27.7%) and Wind Tre (23.7%). Shifting the focus to human sims, which provide voice-only or voice and data services, the Fastweb+Vodafone duo stands at 26.1% (by the former’s 5.1% and the latter’s 21%), ahead of Wind Tre (24%) and Tim (23.5%).
The Swisscom
For the fixed network market, Tim, with 36.4%, remains the leading operator ahead of Swisscom’s new company, which stands at 29.4% (Vodafone 16.1% and Fastweb 13.3%). The positions are reversed; however, if one looks at the fibre fixed network segment, Fastweb and Vodafone combined reach 32.5%, and Tim follows at 26.3%.
In spite of the novelty, on an economic level, nothing changes for both fixed network and mobile customers. The contractual conditions subscribed will remain valid until any changes, which will, in any case, be communicated. What is new is the potentially long-term relationship between the new company and the Vodafone Group, subject to the service agreements that will be established in the coming months. The list includes a licence agreement for the use of the Vodafone brand in Italy for up to five years after closing. Vodafone will also provide various services for a total annual fee of €350 million. The most important common ground, however, looks beyond Italy and telecommunications, as Swisscom and Vodafone are evaluating partnerships in the IoT, procurement and business services and solutions fields.