TIM S.p.A., also operating under the name Telecom Italia, is an Italian telecommunications company headquartered in Rome and Milan, which provides telephony services, mobile services, and DSL data services. It is the largest Italian telecommunications services provider in revenues and subscribers. 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 Idroelettrica Piemontese), the former state monopoly telephone operator in Italy.The company's stock is traded in the Borsa Italiana. Since 2017 the Italian State exercises the "Golden Power", which allows the government to take actions to protect the strategic interests of the country, over Telecom Italia.