Vodafone Group

Vodafone Group is the world's leading mobile communications group. Holding equity interests in 31 countries, Vodafone Group has a significant presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States through the company's subsidiary undertakings, joint ventures, associated undertakings and investments. The Group's mobile subsidiaries operate under the brand name 'Vodafone'. Vodafone Group currently services approximately 315 million customers worldwide.

Vodafone Italia

Vodafone Italia, part of Vodafone Group, is Italy’s first private mobile operator. In June 2009, it had 29.42 million mobile customers. The company operates eight call centres around Italy and more than 7,000 retail outlets. Vodafone Italia has international roaming agreements with 545 operators in 241 countries. The company’s GSM/GPRS coverage extends to 97 percent of the country, representing 99.4 percent of the population. In May 2008, Vodafone Italia launched its fixed-line and broadband services, consolidating its role as a total communications provider to meet all of its customers’ communications needs. In June 2009, it counted 1,025,000 ADSL and 2,394,320 fixed-line customers.

Pre-existing situation & UTCFS’s role

Previously, all Vodafone Italia stores had different security systems from varying manufacturers and installers. The maintenance and management of this complex system created difficulties and Vodafone Italia’s security management decided to standardise all intrusion detection systems. This standardised system needed to be controlled both locally and centrally, meet local regulations and offer a simplified and efficient platform to work from. With these requirements in mind Vodafone Italia’s security staff investigated the market and turned to UTCFS for a solution.

UTCFS’s solution

The ATS Master platform offers Vodafone a high level of security while maintaining its user-friendliness. More than 30 ATS control panels and 300 anti-masking volumetric detectors are installed throughout Vodafone’s Italian stores. The company benefits from a major advantage of the ATS Master platform - the fact that these many different sites can be linked via UTCFS’s dedicated Alliance security management software. This management package allows Vodafone Italia to connect all of its sites to a central control room as well as local control points. More than 20 sites are currently linked to Vodafone Italia’s central monitoring station and, with this solution in place, the company has a standardised, reliable and efficient security system that can be expanded in the future.