Rome, 15 May 2025

Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top global operators, announces the results of the Artificial Intelligence Sparkle Network Assurance (AISNA) project aimed at implementing artificial intelligence in its Network Operation Center (NOC) dedicated to managing and monitoring the international network.

Developed in collaboration with Engineering – a leader in digital transformation for businesses and public administrations – AISNA enables the automation of monitoring, management and quality improvement activities, thereby reducing the risk of errors and misalignments, and allowing faster responses to customer support requests.

By simplifying access to information and automating more repetitive tasks, the solution has reduced by 30% the operational handling time of alerts at the NOC and by up to 80% the average execution time for massive network update campaigns. Furthermore, thanks to AI’s ability to analyze email content, summarize key information and automatically update tickets, it has been possible to reduce by approximately 3,000 hours per year the time spent on customer reporting and by about 700 hours per year the time spent on RFO (Report for Outage). This has allowed staff to focus more on direct customer interaction and problem resolution, with a positive impact on the overall quality of service.

“Sparkle is engaged in several projects aimed at improving customer and employee experience through AI, as well as enriching our market proposition. The AISNA project, focused on network management, has been a top priority for its impact on customers and operations,” said Lorella Scalcione, Chief Information Officer of Sparkle.

“Thanks to this project,” confirms Danilo Decaroli, Head of Operations at Sparkle, “our NOC is now able to interact with customers even more promptly and transparently, while also operating more efficiently and with a greater focus, reducing the burden of repetitive activities in favor of customer care and problem solving.”

About Sparkle

Sparkle is TIM Group’s Global Operator, first international service provider in Italy and among the top worldwide, offering a full range of infrastructure and global connectivity services – capacity, IP, SD-WAN, colocation, IoT connectivity, roaming and voice – to national and international Carriers, OTTs, ISPs, Media/Content Providers, and multinational enterprises. A major player in the submarine cable industry, Sparkle owns and manages a network of more than 600,000 km of fiber spanning from Europe to Africa and the Middle East, the Americas and Asia. Its sales force is active worldwide and distributed over 32 countries.

Find out more about Sparkle following its X and LinkedIn profiles or visiting the website tisparkle.com

Media Contacts:

sparkle.communication@tisparkle.com

X: @TISparkle

News 

Verizon has pledged $5 billion over the next five years to support small business suppliers across the US, through the launch of its new Small Business Supplier Accelerator 

The initiative is designed to lower barriers to entry for small enterprises, seeking to engage with large corporate supply chains. 

The accelerator will offer practical support such as tailored onboarding, training and more flexible commercial terms. These include adjusted indemnity requirements, modified insurance terms and faster payment cycles, which are all designed to make it easier for small businesses to work with Verizon and other big buyers. 

“Verizon recognises that small businesses are the backbone of the American economy and a staple in our local communities,” said Hans Vestberg, Verizon’s CEO in a press release.  

“Our long-standing commitment and investment in small businesses aims to empower local businesses and communities with financial, technology and business expertise and resources to advance economic growth and foster job creation,” he continued. 

The programme complements Verizon’s ongoing efforts through its Small Business Digital Ready platform, a free online hub offering on-demand courses, mentoring, and funding opportunities. Since its launch in 2021, the platform has supported nearly 500,000 small businesses to become equipped to “thrive in a digital economy”, with a target of reaching one million by 2030. 

The move comes amid growing pressure for large enterprises to diversify their supply chains, support local economic growth and improve resilience in the face of global disruption. Verizon, in partnership with LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation), has also announced a new round of $10,000 grants for eligible Digital Ready users.  

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News

Businesses have earned almost £330,000 from recycling unused devices since the service’s relaunch

This week, Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has shared that its O2 Recycle for Business initiative has helped save 45,000 devices from being sent to landfill since it was relaunched in October 2023.

The initiative invites companies to trade in their unused technology, such as smartphones or routers, which are then data wiped, repaired, refurbished and resold, or recycled. In exchange, the companies receive cashback or credit, or can instead opt to donate that cashback to the Good Things Foundation, a charity focussed on digital inclusion in the UK.

Since the initiative’s relaunch, companies have earned almost £330,000 from trading in unused devices.

“We know businesses want simple solutions to help them become more sustainable. That’s why Virgin Media O2 is leading the way in helping companies to reduce their waste, recycle their unwanted tech, and reuse their unwanted device,” said Dana Haidan, Chief Sustainability Officer at VMO2. “Businesses can also play a vital role in supporting digital inclusion by accessing tech donation programmes, where their unused devices can be given a second life and used by someone in need, helping them to get online, access essential websites and build digital skills.”

Despite this success, VMO2’s own research suggests that the schemes progress so far is just a drop in the ocean when it comes to the UK’s e-waste problem. The operator estimates that there are around 11.8 million unused business devices in the UK that could be reused or recycled.

Indeed, data from the UN suggests that the UK produces more e-waste per capita than every other country except Norway.

It is worth noting here that VMO2 has operated a similar recycle scheme on a much larger scale for consumer devices since 2009, earning consumers roughly £350 million and saving 4 million devices from going to landfill.

Combining its business and consumer facing recycling efforts, VMO2 says it is aiming for to complete 10 million ‘circular actions’ by the end of the year.

Join the telecoms ecosystem in discussion at Connected Britain 2025, the UK’s leading digital economy event

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News

This quarter, BCE, Rogers, and Telus collectively reported their lowest wireless subscriber growth in four years

Canada’s crackdown on immigration is hamstringing growth for the nation’s telcos, according to a report in The Toronto Star.

The latest financial reports from all three of the country’s national mobile network operators – BCE, Telus, and Rogers – show a significant drop in subscriber growth this quarter, which they attribute to the government’s immigration policies.

Collectively, the three telcos added just 54,000 net mobile subscribers over the past quarter, the lowest amount since the coronavirus pandemic.

For the past four years, these telcos have typically enjoyed six-figure subscriber growth, buoyed by a steady stream of foreign students and temporary workers entering the country.

By last year, however, it was becoming apparent that this level of immigration – around half a million newcomers annually – was putting a major strain on both the country’s healthcare and housing systems.

As a result, the government has introduced a host of new immigration policies, aimed at both slowing the number of permanent residents and foreign students. In 2025, the country aims to welcome 395,000 permanent residents, 305,900 students, and 367,750 temporary workers, down 21%, 10%, and 16%, respectively, compared to 2024.

While this deceleration in growth was to be expected, it will nonetheless come as a painful blow to the operators, particularly BCE and Rogers which are feeling the pressure of mountains of debt and falling revenues.

Both companies stock prices have fallen to levels not seen for over a decade, with BCE even deciding to slash its dividend by 56%, reducing it for the first time since 2009.

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Press Release

BT has appointed Peter Leukert to the role of Chief Digital Officer, in which he will have responsibility for leading BT’s Digital unit and driving the company’s digital transformation.

Peter is currently Group Chief Information Officer at Deutsche Telekom and will join BT on 1 September this year and be a member of the Executive Committee, reporting to Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive.

BT’s Digital unit is at the heart of the company’s modernisation and transformation. It plays a critical role in the bold customer experience-led transformation underway, as we radically digitalise and simplify our internal and customer-facing systems and processes to be better for all our stakeholders. Our Digital unit is also a catalyst for digital thinking, and in how we embed data and AI in everything we do, in order for us to become the most trusted connector of people, business and society.

Peter has been Group Chief Information Officer at Deutsche Telecom (DT) since 2017 where he has led a significant and successful transformation of their IT and Digital platforms, products and services, and been a key contributor to the customer experience led transformation that has fuelled DT’s recent growth. He has held previous roles at McKinsey & Co, Commerzbank and the New York Stock Exchange in Germany and the US.

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, BT, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Peter to BT. He joins the business at an exciting time as we focus on simultaneously investing in the UK’s leading fixed and mobile networks while transforming our operations to radically improve how we serve our customers.

Peter Leukert said: “I’m thrilled to be joining BT. The opportunity to transform and simplify BT’s operations will improve customer outcomes and drive sustainable business growth, and I am really excited to get started.”

Until Peter joins BT in September, Howard Watson will continue to lead the Digital Unit alongside his responsibilities as Chief Networks and Security Officer.

Join the telecoms ecosystem in discussion at Connected Britain 2025, the UK’s leading digital economy event

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News

The three-year plan will see new telecoms equipment deployed at over 4,600 locations

This week, the US Department of Transport (DOT) has announced a new plan to upgrade the nation’s ‘antiquated’ air traffic control infrastructure.

The three-year ‘Brand New Air Traffic Control System Plan’ will includes upgrades throughout the system, from new hardware and software to the construction of six new air traffic control centres.

“Decades of neglect have left us with an outdated system that is showing its age. Building this new system is an economic and national security necessity, and the time to fix it is now,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a statement.

The update will also include a major revamp of the system’s telecoms infrastructure, including “new fiber, wireless and satellite technologies at over 4,600 sites, 25,000 new radios and 475 new voice switches”.

The financial requirements for such an upgrade were not formally announced, but Duffy said that “billions” would be required from Congress to complete the project.

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news with the Total Telecom newsletter

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News

The proposed changes aim at promoting European innovation and competitiveness on the global stage

This week, the European Commission has launched a public consultation on the bloc’s longstanding merger rules, which it is hoped will encourage investment and innovation.

The review relates to the horizontal merger guidelines (HMG), which governs mergers between actual or potential competitors in the same market, as well as those that operate at different levels of the supply chain.

Seven key topics were listed as a focus of the review: competitiveness and resilience, market power, innovation, decarbonisation, digitalisation, efficiencies, defence and labour considerations.

“This is a pivotal moment for Europe, and it is only by evolving that we can ensure that our merger control policy continues to serve people, drive innovation, and strengthen Europe’s resilience and leadership,” said Teresa Ribera, executive vice president for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition. “We count on your help. We stand ready to hear the views of consumers and businesses all across Europe on how our merger review framework can be made fit for the future.”

The EU’s existing merger rules were drafted in 2004 and have received numerous updates since that time. From a telecoms perspective, these rules have long been viewed as overly restrictive, blocking consolidation in highly competitive markets. This, the operators argue, has limited their ability to invest at scale and is hindering their international competitiveness.

The national antitrust regulators, however, argue that shrinking the number of players in individual markets risks reducing competition, driving up prices for consumers, and decreasing incentive to invest in infrastructure. Regulators from Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Portugal notably issued a joint statement to this effect last month.

“The narrative that fragmentation in the electronic communications sector, hindering investment and innovation, allegedly results from unduly strict competition rules is misplaced,” read the statement.

This long-running debate has been thrown into sharp relief in recent years due to global economic instability, particularly the geopolitical clash between the USA and China which has left Europe scrambling to attain technological growth and self-sufficiency.

Following her re-election in July last year, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, wrote a letter to Ribera, outlining the need for “new approach to competition policy” to boost innovation.

The letter asked Ribera to “modernize the EU’s competition policy to ensure it supports European companies to innovate, compete and lead world-wide and contributes to our wider objectives on competitiveness and sustainability, social fairness and security.”

More specifically, it said that revisions to the HMG should “give adequate weight to the European economy’s more acute needs in respect of resilience, efficiency and innovation, the time horizons and investment intensity of competition in certain strategic sectors and the changed defense and security environment.”

These same factors were again highlighted in the newly announced review.

“This comprehensive and ambitious review of the EU merger guidelines is a unique opportunity to modernise the Commission’s framework for assessing the impact of mergers on competition. It will allow us to account for disruptive changes in our societies and our economies over the past 20 years, such as digitalisation, and enable us to ensure that innovation, resilience, and the investment intensity of competition are given adequate weight in light of the European economy’s acute needs,” said Ribera in a statement.

Interested parties have until 3 September to submit their response to the consultation.

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news with the Total Telecom newsletter

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News

The private mobile network will allow for the widespread use of autonomous vehicles, drones, and real-time IoT monitoring

In partnership with Italian software company Lepida, Fastweb+Vodafone are set to transform the Port of Ravenna, in Italy, into a ‘smart port’, having won a contract to deploy a private 5G network.

The private network will cover the entirety of the port, which spans a roughly 15km long canal, providing ultra-fast, low latency connectivity. This will enable a variety of new use cases, including advanced video surveillance, autonomous vehicle, and drone usage for cargo monitoring.

In addition, the widespread integration of IoT sensors will provide numerous benefits, including the integration of renewable energy systems near the port (including solar and wind power), monitor fuel consumption of vehicles in real time, and collect environmental data such as salinity and pollution levels to support territorial protection policies.

Combined, the new connectivity infrastructure and various use cases will enhance logistics, safety, and sustainability across the site.

The Port of Ravenna is the country’s busiest port for the handling of solid bulk and general cargo and is currently undergoing a €10 million digital upgrade.

The deployment of this private mobile network is one of the first major enterprise projects being undertaken by the newly merged Fastweb+Vodafone.

The two companies were formally combined at the start of this year, following the acquisition of Vodafone Italia by Fastweb’s parent company Swisscom for €8 billion.

The merger has created one of the largest converged operators in Europe, with around 20 million mobile customers and 5.6 million fixed line connections.

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news with the Total Telecom newsletter

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Germany appoints first ever digital minister
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Podcasts

Uncertainty in the world economy is causing many in global telecommunications to hold their breath, according to the editor of Total Telecom.

By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities

Policy decisions regarding tariffs coming from the White House can have enormous effects on supply chains but, as Total Telecom Editor Harry Baldock explained recently on Beyond the Cable, the dust is still settling regarding the impacts of those decisions.

Baldock said it appears folks still don’t know how thought out the White House’s trade policies are, which is causing anxiety.

“When it comes to investment for big companies, stability is important,” Baldock said. “It’s important to know what the economy is potentially going to look like in a few years time.”

Baldock also touched on some other events under Total Telecom’s event portfolio in Europe and the United Kingdom, including Connected Britain and Connected Germany.

He also touched on another event: Connected North.

According to Baldock, Connected North was started once Total Telecom realized that Connected Britain wasn’t representing the whole country.

He said the United Kingdom has experienced a “north-south divide” when it comes to connectivity, and Connected North was launched to meet the need of Britain’s northern population.

“Its always been really popular,” he said, adding that Total Telecom coordinates with local governments to produce Connected North. “It’s a great event.”

To listen to the full interview with Baldock on Spotify, click here.

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Learn more about Broadband Communities Summit 2025 in Houston.

News  

TikTok has been fined €530 million by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) following an investigation into the company’s handling of European user data 

The inquiry found TikTok unlawfully transferred personal data from European Economic Area (EEA) users to China and failed to meet transparency obligations under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

Based in Dublin, TikTok falls under the Irish DPC’s oversight in the EU. Regulators found that it failed to ensure that data accessed by staff in China met EU-level privacy protections. The DPC also found TikTok failed to properly assess the risks posed by Chinese laws, which differ significantly from EU privacy standards.  

“The GDPR requires that the high level of protection provided within the European Union continues where personal data is transferred to other countries,” said DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle in a press release. 

“TikTok’s personal data transfers to China infringed the GDPR because TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of EEA users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU,” he continued. 

TikTok has been given six months to bring its data processing up to standard. If it fails to do so, the company could face a suspension of all data transfers to China. 

The company admitted last month that a limited amount of EEA user data had been stored on servers in China, contradicting earlier claims made during the inquiry. The company says the data has since been deleted, but the DPC is considering whether further enforcement action is warranted. 

The ruling adds to growing international pressure on TikTok, which is facing potential bans or forced divestments in the US and restrictions on government devices in multiple countries due to concerns related to its Chinese ownership. 

The DPC will publish the full decision and related documents in the coming weeks. 

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Data centres in the news this week