THE ECONOMIC, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE COUNTRY

Contribution to the Country

Contribution to the Country

Economic contribution

Direct and indirect economic contribution

Direct impact on families, businesses and the Public Administration

The activities of Vodafone Italy have an impact first of all on its direct stakeholders.

The value created in Italy is distributed among the families of employees, the companies supplying goods and services and the Public Administration, which our Company continuously cooperates with when performing its activities.

Direct economic contribution

Indirect impact on families, businesses and the Public Administration

In addition to direct impact, the business of Vodafone Italy also contributes to the creation of economic benefits generated by the components of its value chain. Thanks to their activities with Vodafone, employees, suppliers and customers in turn generate financial flows, also in this case benefitting families, businesses and government authorities. With specific reference to the impacts identified and analysed in this study, Vodafone Italy’s indirect contribution can be estimated at approximately € 770  million.

Indirect economic contribution

Note: only the impact generated on main local suppliers was considered.

Economic contribution to linked industries

The activities carried out by Vodafone Italy affect its own value chain as well as other sectors of the national economy. This impact on linked industries arises from the fact that part of the wealth received by stakeholders thanks to Vodafone’s activities is used in other economic sectors, thus benefitting linked industries. In fact, the value added created and distributed by the company translates into consumption and investments that flow into other economic sectors, contributing to their growth and producing what is called the “spin-off effect”. The total impact of the company’s activities can thus be estimated in terms of global gross domestic product generation, using macroeconomic studies specific to the European context and telecommunications sector1.

Contribution to Italian GDP

The overall net contribution of Vodafone Italy to Italian economic growth in 2016-2017, can thus be estimated at approx. € 2.3 billion, of which € 2.1 billion representing the value added created directly and approx. € 200 million in terms of wealth generated by the spinoff effect. 

1(Cebr) Centre for Economics and Business Research. The changing economic impact of the telecommunication sector in the EU, 2008.

Economic contribution and value creation

At the end of financial year 2016 – 2017 Vodafone Italy recorded service revenues of € 5,247 million, up 2.3% over the previous year, maintaining the growth trend recorded in recent quarters, especially thanks to the growth in the average data consumption of customers and accelerated growth in the fixed segment. The EBITDA has reached € 2,229 million, up 10.6% over the previous year.

The mobile services segment recorded growth during the year, with revenues equal to € 4,366 million, up 1.5% over the previous year, thanks to the positive results of the prepaid consumer segment, the increase of mobile data consumption (+45%) and the number of 4G customers, which have reached 9 million.

Fixed network service revenues are also growing, equal to € 882 million, with 2.2 million fixed broadband customers and 0.7 million fibre-optic customers, with a growth of 0.4 million customers during the financial year. 

Main results

Main results


Creation and distribution of value added

The calculation of Value Added represents Vodafone Italy’s ability to create and distribute wealth among its stakeholders. Value Added, understood as the difference between production value and intermediate production costs, was calculated by reclassifying the consolidated income statement. It increased compared to the previous year, mainly due to the increase in amortisation and depreciation. 

Distribuzione dipendenti per Settore

Environmental contribution

Also this year, Vodafone Italy launched a number of initiatives aimed at energy saving and reducing polluting emissions. In particular, activities for network modernisation and efficiency continued, with the implementation of cooling technologies at Free Cooling 2.0 sites and the extension of the Single RAN technology to all Vodafone Italy sites. This latest innovation collocates various transmission technologies in a single standard network, generating considerable savings in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. As regards atmospheric emissions, it should be noted that mobile communication technologies represent one of the most efficient instruments for mitigating climate change, since they rationalise and increase the efficiency of activities and processes. 

Environmental emissions

Vodafone Italy has over 20 years’ experience in the field of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technologies and is one of the first operators to provide innovative Internet of Things solutions, both internationally and nationally. Moreover, according to a study issued by Vodafone Group,  in 2020 the contribution of mobile technologies to the reduction of emissions in Europe can be quantified in 110 thousand tonnes of CO2 equivalent, per millions of wireless connections activated (Vodafone Group Plc Carbon Connections: quantifying mobile’s role in tackling climate change. 2009). By applying these figures to the business mobile connections activated by the Company during the year, we estimate that the business of Vodafone Italy alone can contribute to this target with the reduction of approximately 25 thousand tonnes of CO2, allowing the national economy to benefit from most of the opportunities offered by the spread of wireless communication for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, such as dematerialisation and efficient process management. 

Social contribution

Vodafone Italy plays an important role in terms of national employment. As it is part of  a network of businesses, it is possible to assess direct and indirect employment creation, by estimating the jobs that suppliers can provide thanks to activities carried out for Vodafone Italy. In this sense, work units employed during the year are calculated  in approximately  32 thousand people, corresponding to  28 thousand Full Time Equivalents. Firstly, Vodafone Italy’s direct impact on employment is measured on the number of its employees: in Italy, the Company has a workforce of 6,768 people hired with employment contracts, equal to 6,173 Full Time Equivalents (FTE). All employment data is shown in the section dedicated to people. 

Social contribution

In order to globally assess the social impact on the national economy, however, it is necessary to consider the employment offered by suppliers that provide goods and services or that support certain phases of the business process, such as distribution, sales and customer service. Indirect employment is thus estimated as part of the workforce in the supply chain that carries out activities for Vodafone: approximately 21 thousand Full Time Equivalents are indirectly employed by the company.