Rome, 17 June 2026 — Sparkle, Italy’s leading international service provider and a major global telecom operator, has won three awards at the Carrier Community Global Awards 2026 in Berlin during the Europe GCCM event: Best AI Project of the Year, Best Disruptive Solution & Project of the Year, and Best NaaS Platform Provider.
The awards recognize Sparkle’s transformation across three strategic areas of digital infrastructure: AI-driven trust, advanced security architecture, and programmable Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platforms.
Best AI Project of the Year
Sparkle received this award for its Symmetric TLS for Agentic AI (STLS-AI), a patent-pending trust framework designed for AI-driven environments. Unlike traditional certificate-based systems, STLS-AI provides a certificate-less, symmetric, and quantum-resilient authentication mechanism that enables secure identity verification and trust between autonomous AI entities.
Best Disruptive Solution & Project of the Year
The same STLS-AI technology was also recognized as a disruptive innovation for eliminating dependence on traditional Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). By embedding cryptographic identity directly into communications, it simplifies security while improving scalability and protection. Sparkle noted that the technology has already been validated in operator environments.
Best NaaS Platform Provider
Sparkle’s Network-as-a-Service platform was honored for evolving into a fully programmable ecosystem that combines on-demand connectivity, cloud integration, automated service lifecycle management, and embedded security. The platform incorporates Quantum Safe Interconnect (QSI) technology to provide crypto-agile and quantum-resilient protection across its global network services.
Commenting on the achievement, CEO Enrico Bagnasco said the awards validate Sparkle’s vision of integrating trust, security, and connectivity into a single programmable digital infrastructure and reinforce the company’s commitment to investing in technologies that will shape future digital ecosystems.
About Sparkle
Sparkle is the global operator of the TIM Group and manages a network spanning more than 600,000 km of fiber infrastructure across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and Asia, serving carriers, OTTs, ISPs, content providers, and multinational enterprises.
