Telecom Italia targets B2B growth from sovereign services

• TIM Enterprise, the B2B division of Telecom Italia, is investing in its datacentre and edge node infrastructure
• Its three-year, €1bn investment plan will help it capitalise on growth opportunities in cloud, AI, cybersecurity and IoT
• At the heart of its growth strategy is a focus on the development and delivery of sovereign cloud, data and AI services for the Italian market   

TIM Enterprise, the domestic business-to-business (B2B) division of Telecom Italia, has outlined a three-year €1bn investment plan for 2025-27 that will help it “consolidate its role as the technological engine and point of reference for the TIM Group, serving over 30,000 business and public administration customers” and help it fulfil the €4bn in contracts it has already secured with enterprise and government customers. 

And at the heart of its efforts is, like many of its digital service provider peers, a focus on the development and delivery of sovereign services for Italy’s public and private sectors.

In 2024, TIM Enterprise, which has 6,600 staff, generated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €700m from revenues of €3.3bn (24% of group revenues), with half coming from public/government bodies and half from its private business customers, which include more than 8,000 large enterprises.

Of that total, €1.1bn was from connectivity services (40% market share), another €1.1bn from cloud (15% market share), €200m from cybersecurity and €100m from internet of things (IoT), and the remaining €600m from other tech services. (All of these numbers exclude the Sparkle international unit that is being divested.) 

According to TIM, the total B2B tech and communications services sector in Italy was worth €26.8bn in 2024 and that is set to grow to be worth about €31.2bn in 2027. 

As you’d expect, the value of connectivity services is declining, but the value of the cloud and AI services sector in Italy, which is still in the early stages of digitalisation, is set to grow by 14% in the 2024-27 period, while the value of the cybersecurity services sector is expected to grow by 12%, and the IoT and enterprise 5G sector by 8%. 

Naturally, TIM Enterprise is going to focus on the growth prospects in cloud and AI via its Noovle unit (including the development of a GPU-as-a-service offering), cybersecurity via its Telsy unit, and IoT via its Olivetti unit, underpinned by a strategy built around the delivery of sovereign data and cloud services, and supported by AI (including agentic AI). 

The growth plan will be underpinned by investments in its portfolio of datacentres, of which it currently has 16 (giving TIM Enterprise the largest datacentre portfolio in Italy), and its edge nodes, of which it has more than 20. Of the 16 existing datacentre facilities, eight are Tier 4 datacentres that conform to the “highest reliability standards”. It also has a new “AI-ready” datacentre facility currently under construction. The portfolio currently has 100 megawatts of installed capacity and this is set to increase to 125MW by 2027.

That infrastructure portfolio enables TIM Enterprise to “guarantee real digital sovereignty through direct control of computing infrastructures and proprietary cryptographic key management, as well as the know-how gained from managing cloud services”, noted the operator. 

It has also resulted in TIM Enterprise having a key role in Italy’s National Strategic Hub (PSN – Polo Strategico Nazionale), which the telco describes as “the most advanced sovereign cloud initiative in Europe”. That initiative has been developed in partnership with Leonardo (aerospace, defence, security), Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP, Italy’s state lender) and state-owned IT services firm Sogei.

The operator’s cloud services proposition is underpinned by “strategic partnerships with global players such as Google Cloud, Oracle and Microsoft” that “strengthen the technology roadmap, ensuring that the solutions offered to the market are interoperable and continuously innovative”, noted TIM Enterprise. 

“TIM Enterprise is not only an industrial company but also the country’s leading technology provider,” stated Elio Schiavo, Telecom Italia’s chief enterprise and innovative solutions officer. “Through our own applications, specialist knowledge and state-of-the-art digital solutions, we support the growth of businesses and public administrations every day. We are developing a robust, secure, all-Italian infrastructure that can support ongoing technological transformation, and we are committed to building a truly independent and sustainable European ecosystem. Our investments in cloud, datacentres, edge computing and cybersecurity are guided by a clear industrial vision to provide companies, institutions and local authorities with a sovereign, scalable and reliable platform. This is not just a technological project; it is a strategy to ensure Italy’s autonomy, resilience and competitiveness in the European and global context,” added Schiavo.

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV