Telecom Italia is an
Italian telecommunications company which provides telephony services, mobile services, and
DSL data services. It was founded in 1994 by the merger of several state-owned telecommunications companies, the most important of which was
Società Italiana per L'Esercizio Telefonico p.A., (known as
SIP, from the earlier
Società Italiana per l'Esercizio Telefonico), the former state monopoly telephone operator in Italy.