Today 1 June 2024the virtual operator CoopVoce celebrate 17 years since its launch on the Italian mobile telephony market. Since its birth, the operator has achieved several milestones such as the transition to Full MVNO. Furthermore, some innovations have also been introduced in the last year.
With its 17 years of activity, CoopVoce is to date the mostelderly” virtual mobile operator in Italy. Its birth occurs following the reaching of an agreement with TIM (whose mobile network it still uses today) and dates back to 1st June 2007.
At the time the operator’s objective was to offer, mainly to Coop membersthe possibility of being able call from your cell phone (hence the name CoopVoce), and at the same time benefit from shopping.
Over time, however, there has been a physiological adaptation to the market which has led the operator to also propose offers with minutes, SMS and Giga, all trying to maintain a certain common thread, so much so that on its official website, the virtual operator always emphasizes that it has never increased rates for its customers.
The transition from MVNO ESP to Full MVNO
In these years, CoopVoce is it evolved a lot ofbecoming first and foremost a virtual type Full MVNO (it had started its business with an MVNO ESP license) and also launching various new services.
The passage to the platform Full MVNOafter the previous obtaining (by the MISE) of the relevant authorization and the MNC 53 code, it was announced in particular on December 4, 2019the same day that the new logo that is still used currently was also shown.
The investment for the transition to Full MVNO has reached altitude 60 million eurosbut it allowed CoopVoce to be able to count on an independent technological infrastructure which makes it able to directly manage its SIMs, numbers and mobile termination costs.
This, however, made it necessary the use of new SIMs for all customers: the actual transition to the new Full MVNO platform was in fact confirmed the marketing of the new Evolution SIMs from the beginning of 2020 (with ICCID serial number starting with 893953).
For those customers who already owned a CoopVoce ESP SIM with an ICCID serial number starting with 893901the free replacement SIM cards began to be possible, only in some sales points, starting from the end of February 2020. This possibility was later also offered online.
From 1 October 2021, however, the operator has started deactivating the last ESP SIMs not yet replaced by customersa process that officially concluded the migration to the new Full MVNO platform.
Currently, CoopVoce customers benefit as always from the TIM 4G network. In the transparency documents, a maximum speed of 100 Mbps in download and 50 Mbps in upload is indicated, while on the site page dedicated to mobile network coverage, it is specified that it is possible to use 4G at a maximum speed of 150 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload.
In the month of October 2022, TIM has concluded the progressive divestment of 3G technologywhich has not been usable since then not even with the Coop Italia operator.
We also remind you that, from 7 March 2023, with CoopVoce VoLTE technology is officially available for calls on the 4G networkautomatically enabled for those who use a compatible smartphone.
Evolution of the VoLTE service
In this last year of the operator’s activity, some innovations concern the VoLTE servicewhich in the months following its launch has evolved with several new features.
Initially, in fact, to use VoLTE with CoopVoce it was necessary to manually request activation of the service on your number via a dedicated pagereachable via the operator’s official website.
Furthermore, by activating VoLTE the customer could not use the availability service “Do you know about Coop”which lets you know who called when the phone is busy, turned off or unreachable.
In the month of June 2023on the page dedicated to VoLTE on the operator’s website, the previous sentence indicating the unavailability of the service “Do you know about Coop” it was later removedbeing replaced by a new note which, even now, specifies that this on-call service remains active.
Furthermore, subsequently in the first days of July 2023, on the page dedicated to VoLTE, the reference to manual activation and the dedicated button to proceed with enabling the service have also been removed. Since then, in fact, VoLTE is automatically activated for all customers with a compatible smartphone.
In this regard, it should be noted that, on the operator’s official website, the last update of compatible smartphones occurred in March 2024with the addition of new models from the Oppo brand.
Other CoopVoce news this past year
In addition to these updates for the VoLTE service, again in its last year of activity, the virtual operator CoopVoce has also introduced other news and changes.
One of these was, on 1 September 2023, the closure of the free ViviBici servicewith which, through the free app that was available for Android and iOS, it was possible to convert extra data traffic for free the kilometers traveled by bike, on foot or running, up to a maximum of 50 Giga per month.
Also last year, in particular on 15 December 2023, CoopVoce updated its portfolio of options for Extra-EU Roaming with the launch of a new version of the Welcome USA Cardwith which it is possible to obtain 5 GB of data traffic to be used in 15 days in the United States of America.
Furthermore, more recently, during the month of April 2024, it was made available for the operator’s customers the new Easy Renewal servicewith which you can automatically renew your offer by paying the exact amount of the monthly fee on the renewal day, with a charge to the payment method you set.
As regards the advertising side, at the end of December 2023 the virtual operator CoopVoce launched its new institutional commercial named “Making stories”.
Furthermore, even in this last year, Several new offers and promotions have been launched for new and existing customers.
Please remember that, among the main services that have distinguished CoopVoce for several years, even now, for members of some cooperatives, there is the possibility of obtaining free telephone top-ups (or autorecharges) by spending the Coop points accumulated with the shopping.
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